
aass_Jc_!ll 
Book. 



A 



William Boecoc C!)aper 



THEODORE ROOSEVELT: An Intimate Biog- 
raphy. Illustrated. 
THE COLLAPSE OF SUPERMAN. 
GERMANY VS. CIVILIZATION. 
THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF JO+^N HAY. 
a vols. Illustrated. 

Life and times OF x:avour. s vob. 

Illustrated. 

ITALICA ; Studies in Italian Life and Letters. 

A SHORT HISTORY OF VENICE. 

THE DAWN OF ITALIAN INDEPENDENCE: 
Italy from the Congress of Vienna, 1814, to the 
Fallot Venice, 1849. In the series on Conti- 
nental History. With maps. 2 vols. 

THRONE-MAKERS. Paperson BismaTck, Na- 
poleon III., Kossuth, Garibaldi, etc. 

POEMS, NEW AND OLD. 

HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY 
Boston and New York 



THEODORE ROOSEVELT 
AN INTIMATE BIOGRAPHY 



THEODORE 
ROOSEVELT 

AN INTIMATE 
BIOGRAPHY 

BY 
WILLIAM ROSCOE THAYER 




BOSTON AND NEW YORK 

HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY 



T-37, 



COPYRIGHT, I919, BY WILLIAM ROSCOE THAYER 
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED 



"^0 



TO 
EDITH KERMIT ROOSEVELI 



PREFACE 

IN finishing the correction of the last proofs of this 
sketch, I perceive that some of those who read it 
may suppose that I planned to write a deh berate 
eulogy of Theodore Roosevelt. This is not true. I 
knew him for forty years, but I never followed his 
political leadership. Our political differences, how- 
ever, never lessened our personal friendship. Some- 
times long intervals elapsed between our meetings, 
but when we met it was always with the same inti- 
macy, and when we wrote it was with the same can- 
dor. I count it fortunate for me that during the last 
ten years of his life, I was thrown more with Roose- 
velt than during all the earlier period; and so I was 
able to observe him, to know his motives, and to 
study his character during the chief crises of his later 
career, when what he thought and did became an 
integral part of the development of the United States. 
After the outbreak of the World War, in 1914, he 
and I thought alike, and if I mistake not, this closing 
phase of his life will come more and more to be re- 
vered by his countrymen as an example of the high- 
est patriotism and courage. Regardless of popular 
lukewarmness at the start, and of persistent offi- 
cial thwarting throughout, he roused the conscience 



viii PREFACE 

of the nation to a sense of its duty and of its honor. 
What gratitude can repay one who rouses the con- 
science of a nation? Roosevelt sacrificed his Hfe for 
patriotism as surely as if he had died leading a charge 
in the Battle of the Marne. 

The Great War has thrown all that went before it 
out of perspective. We can never see the events of 
the preceding half-century in the same light in 
which we saw them when they were fresh. Instinc- 
tively we appraise them, and the men through whom 
they came to pass, by their relation to the catas- 
trophe. Did they lead up to it consciously or un- 
cbnsciously? And as we judge the outcome of the 
war, our views of men take on changed complexions. 
The war, as it appears now, was the culmination of 
three different world-movements; it destroyed the 
attempt of German Imperialism to conquer the world 
and to rivet upon it a Prussian military despotism. 
Next, it set up Democracy as the ideal for all peo- 
ples to live by. Finally, it revealed that the eco- 
nomic, industrial, social, and moral concerns of men 
are deeper than the political. 

When I came to review Roosevelt's career con- 
secutively, for the purpose of this biography, I saw 
that many of his acts and policies, which had been 
misunderstood or misjudged at the time, were all 
the inevitable expressions of the principle which 



PREFACE ix 

was the master-motive of his Ufe. What we had im- 
agined to be shrewd devices for winning a partisan 
advantage, or for overthrowing a poHtical adversary, 
or for gratifying his personal ambition, had a nobler 
source. I do not mean to imply that Roosevelt, who 
was a most adroit politician, did not employ with 
terrific effect the means accepted as honorable in 
political fighting. So did Abraham Lincoln, who also, 
as a great Opportunist, was both a powerful and a 
shrewd political fighter, but pledged to Righteousness. 
It seems now tragic, but inevitable, that Roose- 
velt, after beginning and carrying forward the war 
for the reconciliation between Capital and Labor, 
should have been sacrificed by the Republican 
Machine, for that Machine was a special organ of 
Capital, by which Capital made and administered the 
laws of the States and of the Nation. But Roosevelt's 
struggle was not in vain; before he died, many of 
those who worked for his downfall in 1912 were look- 
ing up to him as the natural leader of the country, 
in the new dangers which encompassed it. "Had he 
lived," said a very eminent man who had done more 
than any other to defeat him. "he would have been 
the unanimous candidate of the Republicans in 1920." 
Time brings its revenges swiftly. As I write these 
lines, it is not Capital, but overweening Labor which 
makes its truculent demands on the Administration 



X PREFACE 

at Washington, which it has already intimidated. 
Well may we exclaim, "Oh, for the courage of 
Roosevelt!" And whenever the country shall be in 
great anxiety or in direct peril from the cowardice 
of those who have sworn to defend its welfare and 
its integrity, that cry shall rise to the lips of true 
Americans. 

Although I have purposely brought out what I 
believe to be the most significant parts of Roosevelt's 
character and public life, I have not wished to be un- 
critical. I have suppressed nothing. Fortunately for 
his friends, the two libel suits which he went through 
in his later years, subjected him to a microscopic 
scrutiny, both as to his personal and his political 
life. All the efforts of very able lawyers, and of 
clever and unscrupulous enemies to undermine him, 
failed; and henceforth his advocates may rest on the 
verdicts given by two separate courts. 

As for the great political acts of his official career, 
Time has forestalled eulogy. Does any one now de- 
fend selling liquor to children and converting them 
into precocious drunkards? Does any one defend 
sweat-shops, or the manufacture of cigars under 
worse than unsanitary conditions? Which of the 
packers, who protested against the Meat Inspection 
Bill, would care to have his name made public; and 
which of the lawyers and of the accomplices in the 



PREFACE xi 

lobby and in Congress would care to have it known 
that he used every means, fair and foul, to prevent 
depriving the packers of the privilege of canning bad 
meat for Americans, although foreigners insisted that 
the canned meat which they bought should be whole- 
some and inspected? Does any American now doubt 
the wisdom and justice of conserving the natural re- 
sources, of saving our forests and our mineral sup- 
plies, and of controlling the watershed from which 
flows the water-supply of entire States? 

These things are no longer in the field of debate. 
They are accepted just as the railroad and the tele- 
graph are accepted. But each in its time was a novelty, 
a reform, and to secure its acceptance by the Ameri- 
can people and its sanction in the statute book, 
required the zeal, the energy, the courage of one 
man — Theodore Roosevelt. He had many helpers, 
but he was the indispensable backer and accom- 
plisher. When, therefore, I have commended him for 
these great achievements, I have but echoed what is 
now common opinion. 

A contemporary can never judge as the historian 
a hundred years after the fact judges, but the con- 
temporary view has also its place, and it may be 
really nearer to the living truth than is the conclu- 
sion formed when the past is cold and remote and 
the actors are dead long ago. So a friend's outlined 



xli PREFACE 

portrait, though obviously not impartial, must be 
nearer the truth than an enemy's can be — for the 
enemy is not impartial either. We have fallen too 
much into the habit of imagining that only hostile 
critics tell the truth. 

I wish to express my gratitude to many persons 
who have assisted me in my work. First of all, to 
Mrs. Roosevelt, for permission to use various letters. 
Next, to President Roosevelt's sisters, Mrs. William 
S. Cowles and Mrs. Douglas Robinson, for invaluable 
information. Equally kind have been many of Roose- 
velt's associates in Government and in political 
affairs: President William H. Taft, former Secre- 
tary of War; Senator Henry Cabot Lodge; Senator 
Elihu Root and Colonel Robert Bacon, former 
Secretaries of State; Hon. Charles J. Bonaparte, 
former Attorney-General; Hon. George B. Cortel- 
you, former Secretary of the Treasury; Hon. Gifford 
Pinchot, of the National Forest Service; Hon. James 
R. Garfield, former Secretary of the Interior. 

Also to Lord Bryce and the late Sir Cecil Spring- 
Rice, British Ambassadors at Washington; to Hon. 
George W. Wickersham, Attorney-General under 
President Taft; to Mr. Nicholas Roosevelt and Mr. 
Charles P. Curtis, Jr.; to Hon. Albert J. Beveridge, 
ex-Senator; to Mr. James T. Williams, Jr.; to Dr. 



PREFACE xiii 

Alexander Lambert; to Hon. James M. Beck; to 
Major George H. Putnam; to Professor Albert 
Bushnell Hart; to Hon. Charles S. Bird; to Mrs. 
George von L. Meyer and Mrs. Curtis Guild; to 
Mr. Hermann Hagedorn; to Mr. James G. King, Jr.; 
to Dean William D. Lewis; to Hon. Regis H. Post; 
to Hon. William Phillips, Assistant Secretary of 
State; to Mr. Richard Trimble; to Mr. John Wood- 
bury; to Gov. Charles E. Hughes; to Mr. Louis A. 
Coolidge; to Hon. F. D. Roosevelt, Assistant Secre- 
tary of the Navy; to Judge Robert Grant; to Mr. 
James Ford Rhodes; to Hon. W. Cameron Forbes. 

I am under especial obligation to Hon. Charles 
G. Washburn, ex-Congressman, whose book, "Theo- 
dore Roosevelt: The Logic of his Career," I have 
consulted freely and commend as the best analysis 
I have seen of Roosevelt's political character. I wish 
also to thank the publishers and authors of books 
by or about Roosevelt for permission to use their 
works. These are Houghton Mifflin Co. ; G. P. Put- 
nam's Sons; The Outlook Co.; The Macmillan Co. 

To Mr. Ferris Greenslet, whose fine critical taste 
I have often drawn upon; and Mr. George B. Ives, 
who has prepared the Index; and to Miss Alice 
Wyman, my secretary, my obligation is profound. 

W. R. T. 

August 10, 1919 



CONTENTS 

r. ORIGINS AND YOUTH X 

II. BREAKING INTO POLITICS 25 

III. AT THE FIRST CROSSROADS 46 

IV. NATURE THE HEALER 56 
V. BACK TO THE EAST AND LITERATURE 69 

VI. APPLYING MORALS TO POLITICS 83 

VII. THE ROUGH RIDER 109 

VIII. GOVERNOR OF NEW YORK — VICE-PRESIDENT 131 

IX. PRESIDENT 154 
X. THE WORLD WHICH ROOSEVELT CONFRONTED 158 

XL ROOSEVELT'S FOREIGN POLICY 169 

XII. THE GREAT CRUSADE AT HOME 191 

XIII. THE TWO ROOSEVELTS 201 

XIV. THE PRESIDENT AND THE KAISER 214 
XV. ROOSEVELT AND CONGRESS 231 

XVI. THE SQUARE DEAL IN ACTION 242 

XVI I. ROOSEVELT AT HOME 255 

XVIII. HITS AND MISSES 281 

XIX. CHOOSING HIS SUCCESSOR 303 

XX. WORLD HONORS 318 

XXI. WHICH WAS THE REPUBLICAN PARTY? 332 

XXII. THE TWO CONVENTIONS 356 

XXIII. THE BRAZILIAN ORDEAL 3S9 

XXIV. PROMETHEUS BOUND 402 
XXV. PROMETHEUS UNBOUND 426 

INDEX 457 



THEODORE ROOSEVELT 
AN INTIMATE BIOGRAPHY 



ABBREVIATIONS 

Autobiography *^ " Theodore Roosevelt: An Autobiography." Mac- 
millan Co.; New York, 1914. 

*,* The titles of other books by Mr. Roosevelt are given without his 
name as they occur in the footnotes. 
Leupp = Francis E. Leupp: "The Man Roosevelt." D. Appleton 

& Co.; New York, 1904. 
Lewis = Wm. Draper Lewis: " The Life of Theodore Roosevelt." 
John C. Winston Co.; Philadelphia, 1919. 
Morgan == James Morgan: " Theodore Roosevelt; The Boy and the 
Man." Macmillan Co., new ed., 1919. 
Ogg = Frederic A. Ogg: "National Progress, i907-i9i7."Anaer- 
ican Nation Series. Harper & Bros.; New York, 1918. 
Riis = ]acoh A. Riis: "Theodore Roosevelt; the Citizen." 
Outlook Co.; New York, 1904. 
Washburn = Charles G. Washburn: " Theodore Roosevelt; The Logic 
of His Career." Houghton Mifflin Co., 1916. 



THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

CHAPTER I 
ORIGINS AND YOUTH 

NOTHING better illustrates the elasticity of 
American democratic life than the fact that 
within a span of forty years Abraham Lincoln and 
Theodore Roosevelt were Presidents of the United 
States. Two men more unlike in origin, in training, 
and in opportunity, could hardly be found. 

Lincoln came from an incompetent Kentuckian 
father, a pioneer without the pioneer's spirit of 
enterprise and push; he lacked schooling; he had 
barely the necessaries of life measured even by the 
standards of the Border; his companions were rough 
frontier wastrels, many of whom had either been, or 
might easily become, ruffians. The books on which 
he fed his young mind were very few, not more than 
five or six, but they were the best. And yet in spite 
of these handicaps, Abraham Lincoln rose to be the 
leader and example of the American Nation during 
its most perilous crisis, and the ideal Democrat of 
the nineteenth century. 
Theodore Roosevelt, on the contrary, was born 



2 THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

in New York City, enjoyed every advantage in edu- 
cation and training; his family had been for many 
generations respected in the city; his father was 
cultivated and had distinction as a citizen, who de- 
voted his wealth and his energies to serving his 
fellow men. But, just as incredible adversity could 
not crush Abraham Lincoln, so lavish prosperity 
could not keep down or spoil Theodore Roosevelt. 

In his "Autobiography" he tells us that "about 
1644 his ancestor, ClaesMartensen van Roosevelt, 
came to New Amsterdam as a ' settler ' — the euphe- 
mistic name for an immigrant who came over in the 
steerage of a sailing ship in the seventeenth century. 
From that time for the next seven generations from 
father to son every one of us was born on Manhat- 
tan Island." ^ For over a hundred years the Roose- 
velts continued to be typical Dutch burghers in a 
hard-working. God-fearing, stolid Dutch way, each 
leaving to his son a little more than he had inherited. 
During the Revolution, some of the family were in 
the Continental Army, but they won no high honors, 
and some of them sat in the Congresses of that gen- 
eration — sat, and were honest, but did not shine. 
Theodore's great-grandfather seems to have amassed 
what was regarded in those days as a large fortune. 

^ Autobiography, i. 



ORIGINS AND YOUTH 3 

His grandfather, Cornelius \'an Schaack Roosevelt, 
a glass importer and banker, added to his inherit- 
ance, but was more than a mere money-maker. 

His son Theodore, born in 1831, was the father 
of the President. Inheriting sufficient means to live 
in great comfort, not to say in luxur>% he neverthe- 
less engaged in business; but he had a high sense of 
the obligation which wealth lays on its possessors. 
And so, instead of wasting his life in merely heaping 
up dollars, he dedicated it to spending wisely and 
generously those which he had. There was nothing 
puritanical, however, in his way of living. He en- 
joyed the normal, healthy pleasures of his station. 
He drove his coach and four and was counted one 
of the best whips in New York. Taking his paternal 
responsibilities seriously, he implanted In his chil- 
dren lively respect for discipline and duty; but he 
kept ver>^ near to their affection, so that he remained 
throughout their childhood, and after they grew up, 
their most intimate friend. 

What finer tribute could a son pay than this which 
follows? 

My father, Theodore Roosevelt, was the best man I ever 
knew. He combined strength and courage with gentleness, 
tenderness, and great unselfishness. He would not tolerate in 
us children selfishness or cruelty, idleness, cowardice, or un- 
truthfulness. As we grew older he made us understand that 
the same standard of clean living was demanded for the boys 



4 THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

as for the girls ; that what was wrong in a woman could not be 
right in a man. With great love and patience and the most 
understanding sympathy and consideration he combined in- 
sistence on discipline. He never physically punished me but 
once, but he was the only man of whom I was ever really 
afraid.^ 

Thus the President, writing nearly forty years 
after his father's death. His mother was Martha 
Bulloch, a member of an old Southern family, one 
of her ancestors having been the first Governor of 
Georgia. During the Civil War, while Mr. Roosevelt 
was busy raising regiments, supporting the Sani- 
tary Commission, and doing whatever a non-com- 
batant patriot could do to uphold the Union, Mrs. 
Roosevelt's heart allegiance went with the South, 
and to the end of her life she was never "recon- 
structed." But this conflict of loyalties caused no 
discord in the Roosevelt family circle. Her two broth- 
ers served in the Confederate Navy. One of them, 
James Bulloch, "a veritable Colonel Newcome," 
was an admiral and directed the construction of 
the privateer Alabama. The other, Irvine, a mid- 
shipman on that vessel, fired the last gun in its fight 
with the Kearsarge before the Alabama sank. After 
the war both of them lived in Liverpool and "Uncle 
Jimmy" became a rabid Tory. He "was one of the 
best men I have ever known," writes his nephew 

^ Autobiography, 9, la 



ORIGINS AND YOUTH 5 

Theodore ; "and when I have sometimes been tempted 
to wonder how good people can believe of me the 
unjust and impossible things they do believe, I have 
consoled myself by thinking of Uncle Jimmy Bul- 
loch's perfectly sincere conviction that Gladstone 
was a man of quite exceptional and nameless in- 
famy in both public and private life." ^ 

Theodore Roosevelt grew up to be not only a 
stanch but an uncompromising believer in the 
Union Cause; but the fact that his parents came 
from the North and from the South, and that, from 
his earliest memory, the Southern kindred were held 
in affection in his home, must have helped him 
towards that non-sectional, all- American point of 
view which was the cornerstone of his patriotic 
creed. 

The Roosevelt house was situated at No. 28 East. 
Twentieth Street, New York City, and there Theo- 
dore was born on October 2"], 1858. He passed his 
boyhood amid the most wholesome family life. Be- 
sides his brother Elliott and two sisters, as his 
Uncle Robert lived next door, there were cousins 
to play with and a numerous kindred to form the 
background of his young life. He was, fortunately, 
not precocious, for the infant prodigies of seven, 
who become the amazing omniscients of twenty- 
* Autobiography, 16. 



6 THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

three, are seldom heard of at thirty. He learned very 
early to read, and his sisters remember that when 
he was still in starched white petticoats, with a curl 
carefully poised on top of his head, he went about 
the house lugging a thick, heavy volume of Living- 
stone's "Travels" and asking some one to tell him 
about the "foraging ants" described by the ex- 
plorer. At last his older sister found the passage in 
which the little boy had mistaken "foregoing" for 
" foraging." No wonder that in his mature years he 
became an advocate of reformed spelling. His sense 
of humor, which flashed like a mountain brook 
through all his later intercourse and made it delight- 
ful, seems to have begun with his infancy. He used to 
say his prayers at his mother's knee, and one even- 
ing when he was out of sorts with her, he prayed 
the Lord to bless the Union Cause; knowing her 
Southern preferences he took this humorous sort of 
vengeance on her. She, too, had humor and was 
much amused, but she warned him that if he re- 
peated such impropriety at that solemn moment, 
she should tell his father. 

Theodore and the other children had a great 
fondness for pets, and their aunt, Mrs. Robert, 
possessed several of unusual kinds — pheasants 
and peacocks which strutted about the back yard 
and a monkey which lived on the back piazza. They 



ORIGINS AND YOUTH 7 

were afraid of him, although they doubtless watched 
his antics with a fearful joy. From the accounts 
which survive, life in the nursery of the young 
Roosevelts must have been a perpetual play-time, 
but through it all ran the invisible formative influ- 
ence of their parents, who had the art of shaping 
the minds and characters of the little people with- 
out seeming to teach. 

Almost from infancy Theodore suffered from 
asthma, which made him physically puny, and 
often prevented him from lying down when he went 
to bed. But his spirit did not droop. His mental 
activity never wearied and he poured out endless 
stories to the delight of his brother and sisters. 
*' My earliest impressions of my brother Theodore," 
writes his sister, Mrs. Robinson, "are of a rather 
small, patient, suffering little child, who, in spite of 
his suffering, was the acknowledged head of the nurs- 
ery. . . . These stories," she adds, "almost always 
related to strange and marvelous animal adven- 
tures, in which the animals were personalities quite 
as vivid as Kipling gave to the world a generation 
later in his 'Jungle Books.*" 

Owing to his delicate health Theodore did not 
attend school, except for a little while, when he 
went to Professor MacMullen's Academy on Twen- 
tieth Street. He was taught at home and he prob- 



8 THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

ably got more from his reading than from his teach- 
ers. By the time he was ten, the passion for omniv- 
orous reading which frequently distinguishes boys 
who are physically handicapped, began in him. He 
devoured Our Young Folks, that excellent period- 
ical on which many of the boys and girls who were 
his contemporaries fed. He loved tales of travel and 
adventure; he loved Cooper's stories, and especially 
books on natural history. 

In summer the children spent the long days out 
of doors at some country place, and there, in ad- 
dition to the pleasure of being continuously with 
nature, they had the sports and games adapted to 
their age. Theodore was already making collections 
of stones and other specimens after the haphazard 
fashion of boys. The young naturalist sometimes 
met with unexpected difficulties. Once, for instance, 
he found a litter of young white mice, which he put 
in the ice-chest for safety. His mother came upon 
them, and, in the interest of good housekeeping, 
she threw them away. When Theodore discovered 
it he flew into a tantrum and protested that what 
hurt him most was "the loss to Science! the loss to 
Science!" On another occasion Science suffered a 
loss of unknown extent owing to his obligation to 
manners. He and his cousin had filled their pockets 
and whatever bags they had with specimens. Then 



ORIGINS AND YOUTH 9 

they came upon two toads, of a strange and new 
variety. Having no more room left, each boy put 
one of them on top of his head and clapped down 
his hat. All went well till they met Mrs. Hamilton 
Fish, a great lady to whom they had to take off their 
hats. Down jumped the toads and hopped away, 
and Science was never able to add the Btifo Roose- 
veltiamis to its list of Hudson Valley reptiles. 

In 1869 Mr. Roosevelt took his family to Europe 
for a year. The children did not care to go, and from 
the start Theodore was homesick and little inter- 
ested. Of course, picture galleries meant nothing 
to a boy of ten, with a naturalist's appetite, and 
he could not know enough about history to be im- 
pressed by historic places and monuments. He 
kept a diary from which Mr. Hagedorn ^ prints 
many amusing entries, some of which I quote: 

Munich, October. "In the night I had a nightmare dream- 
ing that the devil was carrying me away and had collorer 
morbos (a sickness that is not very dangerous) but Mama 
patted me with her delicate fingers." 

Little Conie also kept a diary: the next entry is 
from it: 

Paris. ** I am so glad Mama has let me stay in the butiful 
hotel parlor while the poor boys have been dragged off to the 
orful picture galary," 

^ H. Hagedorn: The Boy's Life of Theodore Roosevelt. Harper & 
Bros. 1918. 



10 THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

Now Theodore again: 

Paris, November 26. "I stayed in the house all day, vary- 
ing the day with brushing my hair, washing my hands and 
thinking in fact haveing a verry dull time." 

"Nov. 27. I Did the same thing as yesterday." 

Chamounix. "I found several specimens to keep and we 
went on the great glacier called 'Mother of ice!'" 

*'We went to our cousins school at Waterloo. We had a 
nice time but met Jeff Davises son and some sharp words 
ensued." 

Venice. *'We saw a palace of the doges. It looks like a 
palace you could be comfortable and snug in (which is not 
usual) — We went to another church in which Conie jumped 
over tombstones spanked me banged Ellies head &c." 

"Conie" was his nickname for his younger sister 

Corinne.^ 

November 22. "In the evening Mama showed me the por- 
trait of Eidieth Carow and her face stirred up in me home- 
sickness and longings for the past which will come again 
never aback never." 

The little girl, the sight of whose portrait stirred 
such longings for the past in the heart of the young 
Theodore, was Edith Carow, the special playmate 
of his sister Conie and one of the intimate group 
whom he had always known. Years later she be- 
came his wife. 

The Roosevelt family returned to New York in 
May, 1870, and resumed its ordinary life. Theodore, 
whom one of his fellow travelers on the steamer 
^ ^ She subsequently married Mr. Douglas Robinson. 



ORIGINS AND YOUTH ii 

remembers as " a tall thin lad with bright eyes and 
legs like pipestems," developed rapidly in mind, 
but the asthma still tormented him and threatened 
to make a permanent invalid of him. His father 
fitted up in the house in Twentieth Street a small 
gymnasium and said to the boy in substance, 
"You have brains, but you have a sickly body. In 
order to make your brains bring you what they 
ought, you must build up your body; it depends 
upon you." The boy felt both the obligation and 
the desire; he willed to be strong, and he went 
through his gymnastic exercises with religious preci- 
sion. What he read in his books about knights and 
paladins and heroes had always greatly moved his 
imagination. He wanted to be like them. He under- 
stood that the one indispensable attribute common 
to all of them was bodily strength. Therefore he 
would be strong. Through all his suffering he was 
patient and determined. But I recall no other boy, 
enfeebled by a chronic and often distressing disease, 
who resolved as he did to conquer his enemy by a 
wisely planned and unceasing course of exercises. 

Improvement came slowly. Many were the nights 
in which he spent hours gasping for breath. Some- 
times on summer nights his father would wrap him 
up and take him on a long drive through the dark- 
ness in search of fresh air. But no matter how hard 



12 THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

the pinch, the boy never complained, and when- 
ever there was a respite his vivacity burst forth as 
fresh as ever. He could not attend school with other 
boys and, indeed, his realization that he could not 
meet them on equal physical terms made him timid 
when he was thrown with them. So he pursued his 
own tastes with all the more zeal. He read many 
books, some of which seemed beyond a boy's ken, 
but he got something from each of them. His power 
of concentration already surprised his family. If he 
was absorbed in a chapter, nothing which went on 
outside of him, either noise or interruption, could 
distract his attention. His passion for natural his- 
tory increased. At the age of ten, he opened in one 
of the rooms of his home "The Roosevelt Museum 
of Natural History." Later, he devoted himself more 
particularly to birds, and learned from a taxider- 
mist how to skin and stuff his specimens. 

In 1873, President Grant appointed Mr. Roose- 
velt a Commissioner to the Vienna Exposition and 
the Roosevelt family made another foreign tour. 
Hoping to benefit Theodore's asthma they went to 
Algiers, and up the Nile, where he was much more 
interested in the flocks of aquatic fowl than in the 
half-buried temples of Dendera or the obelisks and 
pylons of Karnak. He even makes no mention of 
the Pyramids, but records with enthusiasm that he 



ORIGINS AND YOUTH 13 

found at Cairo a book by an English clergyman, 
whose name he forgot, on the ornithology of the 
Nile, which greatly helped him. Incidentally, he 
says that from the Latin names of the birds he 
made his first acquaintance with that language. 

While Mr. Roosevelt attended to his duties in 
Vienna the younger children were placed in the 
family of Herr Minckwitz, a Government official 
at Dresden. There, Theodore, "in spite of himself," 
learned a good deal of German, and he never forgot 
his pleasant life among the Saxons in the days be- 
fore the virus of Prussian barbarism had poisoned 
all the non-Prussian Germans. Minckwitz had been 
a Liberal in the Revolution of 1848, a fact which 
added to Theodore's interest in him. 

On getting home, Theodore, who was fifteen years 
old, set to work seriously to fit himself to enter Har- 
vard College. Up to this time his education had 
been unmethodical, leaving him behind his fellows 
in some subjects and far ahead of them in others. 
He had the good fortune now to secure as a tutor 
Mr. Arthur H. Cutler, for many years head of the 
Cutler Preparatory School in New York City, 
thanks to whose excellent training he was able to 
enter college in 1876. During these years of prep- 
aration Theodore's health steadily improved. He 
had a gun and was an ardent sportsman, the in- 



14 THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

centive of adding specimens to his collection of 
birds and animals outweighing the mere sport of 
slaughter. At Oyster Bay, where his father first 
leased a house in 1874, he spent much of his time 
on the water, but he deemed sailing rather lazy 
and unexciting, compared with rowing. He enjoyed 
taking his row-boat out into the Sound, and, if a 
high head wind was blowing, or the sea ran in white- 
caps, so much the better. He was now able to share 
in all of the athletic pastimes of his companions, 
although, so far as I know, he never indulged in 
baseball, the commonest game of all. 

When he entered Harvard as a Freshman in 1876, 
that institution was passing through its transition 
from college to university, which had begun when 
Charles W. Eliot became its President seven years 
before. In spite of vehement assaults, the Great 
Educator pushed on his reform slowly but resist- 
lessly. He needed to train not only the public but 
many members, perhaps a majority, of his faculty. 
Young Roosevelt found a body of eight hundred 
undergraduates, the largest number up to that time. 
While the Elective System had been introduced in 
the upper classes. Freshmen and Sophomores were 
still required to take the courses prescribed for them. 

To one who looks back, after forty years, on the 
Hansard of that time there was much about it, the 



ORIGINS AND YOUTH 15 

loss of which must be regretted. Limited in many 
directions it was, no doubt, but its very limitations 
made for friendship and for that sense of intimate 
mutual relationship, out of which springs mutual 
affection. You belonged to Harvard, and she to you. 
That she was small, compared with her later mag- 
nitude, no more lessened your love for her, than 
your love for your own mother could be increased 
were she suddenly to become a giantess. The under- 
graduate community was not exactly a large family, 
but it was, nevertheless, restricted enough no-t only 
for a fellow to know at least by sight all of his 
classmates, but also to have some knowledge of 
what was going on in other classes as well as in the 
College as a whole. Academic fame, too, had a bet- 
ter chance then than it has now. There were eight 
or ten professors, whom most of the fellows knew by 
sight, and all by reputation; now, however, I meet 
intelligent students who have never heard even the 
name of the head of some department who is fa- 
mous throughout the world among his colleagues, but 
whose courses that student has never taken. 

In spite of the simplicity and the homelikeness 
of the Harvard with eight hundred undergraduates, 
however, it was large enough to afford the oppor- 
tunity of meeting men of many different tastes and 
men from all parts of the country. So it gave free 



i6 THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

play to the development of individual talents, and 
its standard of scholarship was already sufficiently 
high to ensure the excellence of the best scholars 
it trained. One quality which we probably took 
little note of, although it must have affected us 
all, sprang from the fact that Harvard was still a 
crescent institution; she was in the full vigor of 
growth, of expansion, of increase, and we shared 
insensibly from being connected with that growth. 
In retrospect now, and giving due recognition to 
this crescent spirit, I recall that, in spite of it, Omar 
Khayyam w^as the favorite poet of many of us, 
that introspection, which sometimes deepened into 
pessimism, was in vogue, and that a spiritual or 
philosophic languorous disenchantment sicklied o'er 
the somewhat mottled cast of our thought. 

Roosevelt took rooms at No. i6 Winthrop Street, 
a quiet little lane midway between the College Yard 
and Charles River, where he could pursue his hob- 
bies without incessant interruption from casual 
droppers-in. Here he kept the specimens which he 
went on collecting, some live — a large turtle and 
two or three harmless snakes, for instance — and 
some dead and stuffed. He was no "grind " ; the gods 
take care not to mix even a drop of pedantry in 
the make-up of the rare men whom they destine for 
great deeds or fine works. Theodore was already 



ORIGINS AND YOUTH 17 

so much stronger in his health that he went on to 
get still more strength. He had regular lessons in 
boxing. He took long walks and studied the flora 
and fauna of the country round Cambridge in his 
amateurish but intense way. During his first Christ- 
mas vacation, he went down to the Maine Woods 
and camped out, and there he met Bill Sewall, a 
famous guide, who remained Theodore's friend 
through life, and Wilmot Dow, Sewall's nephew, 
another woodsman ; and this trip, subsequently fol- 
lowed by others, did much good to his physique. 
He still had occasional attacks of asthma — he 
"guffled" as Bill Sewall called it — and they were 
sometimes acute, but his tendency to them slowly 
wore away. 

All his days Roosevelt was proud of being a Har- 
vard man. Even in the period when academic Har- 
vard was most critical of his public acts, he never 
wavered in his devotion to Alma Mater herself, that 
dear and lovely Being, who, like the ideal of our 
country, lives on to inspire us in spite of unsym- 
pathetic administrations and unloved leaders. 

"The One remains, the many change and pass." 

Nevertheless, in his "Autobiography," Theodore 
makes very scant record of his college life. " I thor- 
oughly enjoyed Harvard," he says, "and I am sure 



1 8 THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

it did me good, but only in the general effect, for 
there was very little in my actual studies which 
helped me in after life." ^ Like nine out of ten men 
who look back on college he could make no definite 
estimate of the actual gains from those four years; 
but it is precisely the indefiniteness, the elusiveness 
of the college experience which marks its worth. 
This is not to be reckoned financially by an in- 
crease in dollars and cents, or intellectually, by so 
many added foot-pounds of knowledge. Harvard 
College was of inestimable benefit to Roosevelt, be- 
cause it enabled him to find himself — to be a man 
with his fellow men. 

During his youth his physical handicap had rather 
cut him off from companionship on equal terms with 
his fellows. Now, however, he could enter with zest 
in their sports and societies. At the very beginning 
of his Freshman year he showed his classmates his 
mettle. During the presidential torchlight parade 
when the jubilant Freshmen were marching for 
Hayes, some Tilden man shouted derisively at them 
from a second-story window and pelted them with 
potatoes. It was impossible for them to get at him, 
but Theodore, who was always stung at any dis- 
play of meanness — and it was certainly mean to 
attack the paraders when they could not retaliate 

* Autobiography, 27. 



ORIGINS AND YOUTH ' 19 

stood out from the line and shook his fist at the 

assailant. His fellow marchers asked who their 
champion was, and so the name of Roosevelt and 
his pugnacious little figure became generally known 
to them. He was little then, not above five feet six 
in height, and under one hundred and thirty pounds 
in weight. By degrees they all knew him. His unu- 
sual ways, his loyalty to his hobbies, which he treated 
not as mere whims but as being worthy of serious 
application, his versatility, his outspokenness, his 
almost unbroken good-nature, attracted most of the 
persons with whom he came in contact. He rose to 
be President of the Natural History Society, a dis- 
tinction which implied some real merit in its posses- 
sor. His family antecedents, but still more his per- 
sonal qualities, made easy for him the ascent of the 
social terraces at Harvard — the Dicky, the Hasty 
Pudding Club, and the Porcellian. He was editor of 
the Harvard Advocate, which opened the door of the 
O.K. Society, where he found congenial intellectual 
companionship with the editors from the classes 
above and below him; and when Dr. Edward Ever- 
ett Hale wished to revive and perpetuate the Alpha 
Delta Phi Fraternity, Roosevelt was one of the 
half-dozen men from the Class of 1880 whom he 

selected. 

My first definite recollection of him is at the 



20 THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

annual dinner of the Harvard Crimson in January or 
February, 1879. He was invited as a guest to repre- 
sent the Advocate. Since entering college I had met 
him casually many times and had heard of his oddi- 
ties and exuberance; but throughout this dinner I 
came to feel that I knew him. On being called on 
to speak he seemed very shy and made, what I 
think he said, was his maiden speech. He still had 
difficulty in enunciating clearly or even in running 
off his words smoothly. At times he could hardly 
get them out at all, and then he would rush on for 
a few sentences, as skaters redouble their pace over 
thin ice. He told the story of two old gentlemen 
who stammered, the point of which was, that one of 
them, after distressing contortions and stoppages, 
recommended the other to go to Dr. X, adding, 
"He cured me." 

A trifling bit of thistledown for memory to have 
preserved after all these years; but still it is inter- 
esting to me to recall that this was the beginning 
of the public speaking of the man who later ad- 
dressed more audiences than any other orator of 
his time and made a deeper impression by his 
spoken word. 

One other reminiscence of Roosevelt at Harvard, 
almost as unsubstantial as this. Late in his Senior 
year we had a committee meeting of the Alpha Delta 



ORIGINS AND YOUTH 21 

Phi in Charles Washburn's room at 15 Hoi worthy. 
Roosevelt and I sat in the window-seat overlooking 
the College Yard and chatted together in the inter- 
vals when business was slack. We discussed what we 
intended to do after graduation. " I am going to try 
to help the cause of better government in New York 
City; I don't know exactly how," said Theodore. 

I recall, still, looking hard at him with an eager, 
inquisitive look and saying to myself, "I wonder 
whether he is the real thing, or only the bundle of 
eccentricities which he appears." There was in me 
then, as there has always been, a mingling of skep- 
ticism and of deep reverence for those who dealt 
with reality, and I had not had sufficient oppor- 
tunity to determine whether Roosevelt was real or 
not. One at least of his classmates, however, saw por- 
tents of greatness in Theodore, from their Freshman 
year, and most of us, even when we were amused and 
puzzled by his "queerness," were very sure that the 
man from whom they sprang was not commonplace. 

So far as I remember, Roosevelt was the first 
undergraduate to own and drive a dog-cart. This 
excited various comments; so did the reddish, pow- 
der-puff side whiskers which no chaffing could 
make him cut. There was never the slightest sug- 
gestion of the gilded youth about him; though 
dog-carts, especially when owned by young men, 



22 THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

implied the habits and standards of the gilded rich. 
How explain the paradox? On the other hand, Theo- 
dore taught Sunday School at Christ Church, but 
he was so muscular a Christian that the decorous 
vestrymen thought him an unwise guide in piety. 
For one day a boy came to class with a black eye 
which he had got in fighting a larger boy for pinching 
his sister. Theodore told him that he did perfectly 
right — that every boy ought to defend any girl 
from insult — and he gave him a dollar as a reward. 
The vestrymen decided that this was too flagrant 
approval of fisticuffs; so the young teacher soon 
found a welcome in the Sunday School of a different 
denomination. 

Of all the stories of Roosevelt's college career, 
that of his boxing match is most vividly remem- 
bered. He enrolled in the light-weight sparring at 
the meeting in the Harvard Gymnasium on March 
22, 1879, and defeated his first competitor. When 
the referee called "time," Roosevelt immediately 
dropped his hands, but the other man dealt him a 
savage blow on the face, at which we all shouted, 
"Foul, foul!" and hissed; but Roosevelt turned 
towards us and cried out "Hush! He did n't hear," 
a chivalrous act which made him immediately popu- 
lar. In his second match he met Hanks. They both 
weighed about one hundred and thirty-five pounds, 



ORIGINS AND YOUTH 23 

but Hanks was two or three inches taller and he 
had a much longer reach, so that Theodore could 
not get in his blows, and although he fought with 
unabated pluck, he lost the contest. More serious 
than his short reach, however, was his near-sight- 
edness, which made it impossible for him to see and 
parry Hanks's lunges. When time was called after 
the last round, his face was dashed with blood and 
he was much winded; but his spirit did not flag, 
and if there had been another round, he would 
have gone into it with undiminished determina- 
tion. From this contest there sprang up the legend 
that Roosevelt boxed with his eyeglasses lashed to 
his head, and the legend floated hither and thither 
for nearly thirty years. Not long ago I asked him 
the truth. "Persons who believe that," he said, 
"must think me utterly crazy; for one of Charlie 
Hanks's blows would have smashed my eyeglasses 
and probably blinded me for life." 

In a class of one hundred and seventy he gradu- 
ated twenty-second, which entitled him to mem- 
bership in the Phi Beta Kappa, the society of high 
scholars. To one who examines his academic record 
wisely, the best symptom is that he did fairly well 
in several unrelated subjects, and achieved preem- 
inence in one, natural history. He had the all-round 
quality which shows more promise than does a 



24 THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

propensity to light on a particular topic and suck 
it dry ; but he had also power of concentration and 
thoroughness. As I have just said, he was a happy 
combination of the amateurish and intense. His 
habit of absorption became a by-word; for if he 
visited a classmate's room and saw a book which 
interested him, instead of joining in the talk, he 
would devour the book, oblivious of^ everything 
else, until the college bell rang for the next lecture, 
when he would jump up with a start, and dash off. 
The quiet but firm teaching of his parents bore 
fruit in him: he came to college with a body of 
rational moral principles which he made no parade 
of, but obeyed instinctively. And so, where many 
young fellows are thrown off their balance on first 
acquiring the freedom which college life gives, or 
are dazed and distracted on first hearing the ba- 
bel of strange philosophies or novel doctrines, he 
walked straight, held himself erect, and was not 
fooled into mistaking novelty for truth, or libertin- 
ism for manliness. 

Two outside events which deeply influenced him 
must be noted. During his Sophomore year his father 
died ; and during his Senior year, Theodore became 
engaged to Miss Alice Hathaway Lee, daughter of 
George C. Lee, of Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts. 



CHAPTER II 

BREAKING INTO POLITICS 

ROOSEVELT was a few months less than 
twenty-two years old when he graduated from 
Harvard. His career in college had wrought several 
important changes in him. First of all, his strength 
was confirmed. Although he still suffered occasion- 
ally from asthma, he was no longer handicapped. In 
business, or in pleasure, he did not need to consider 
his health. Next, he had come to some definite de- 
cision as to what he would do. His earlier dream of 
becoming a professor of natural history had faded 
away. With the inpouring of vigor into his consti- 
tution the ideal of an academic life, often sedentary 
in mind as well as in body, ceased to lure him. He 
craved activity, and this craving was bound to 
grow more urgent as he acquired more strength. 
Next, and this consideration must not be neglected, 
he was free to choose. His father's death left him 
the possessor of a sufficient fortune to live on com- 
fortably without need of working to earn his bread 
and butter — the motive which determines most 
young men when they start in life. Finally, his fa- 
ther's example, reinforced by wholesome advice, 



26 THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

quickened in Theodore his sense of obligation to 
the community. Having money, he must use it, 
not for mere personal gratification, but in ways 
which would benefit those who were deprived, or 
outcast, or bereft. But Theodore was too young 
and too energetic to be contented with the life of a 
philanthropist, no matter how noble and necessary 
its objects might be. He had already accepted Emer- 
son 's dictum: 

"He who feeds men, serves a few; 
He serves all who dares be true." 

Young as he was, he divined that much of the chari- 
table work, to which good people devote them- 
selves in order to lighten or relieve the ills which 
the sins and errors of mankind beget, would be 
needless if the remedy were applied, as it ought to 
be, to fundamental social conditions. These, he be- 
lieved, could be reached in many cases through polit- 
ical agency, and he resolved, therefore, to make a 
trial of his talents in political life. 

The point at which he decided to "break into 
politics," as he expressed it, was the Assembly, or 
Lower House of the New York State Legislature. 
Most of his friends and classmates, on hearing of 
his plan, regarded it as a proof of his eccentricity; 
a few of them, the more discerning, would not pre- 
judge him, but were rather inclined to hope. By 



BREAKING INTO POLITICS 27 

tradition and instinct, he was a Republican, and 
in order to learn the political ropes he joined the 
Twenty-first District Republican Association of 
New York City. The district consisted chiefly of 
rich, respectable, and socially conspicuous inhabit- 
ants of the vortex metropolis, with a leaven of the 
"masses." The "classes" had no real zeal for dis- 
charging their political duty. They subscribed to 
the campaign fund, but had too delicate a sense of 
propriety to ask how their money w^as spent. A few 
of them — and these seemed to be endowed with 
a special modicum of patriotism — even attended 
the party primaries in which candidates were named. 
The majority went to the polls and cast their vote 
on election day, if it did not rain or snow. 

For a young man of Roosevelt's position to de- 
sire to take up politics seemed to his friends almost 
comic. Politics were low and corrupt; politics were 
not for "gentlemen"; they were the business and 
pastime of liquor-dealers, and of the degenerates 
and loafers who frequented the saloons, of horse-car 
conductors, and of many others whose ties with 
"respectability" were slight. 

To join the organization, Roosevelt had to be 
elected to the Twenty-first District Republican 
Club, for the politicians of those days kept their 
organization close, not to say exclusive, and in this 



28 THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

way they secured the docility of their members. 
The Twenty-first District Club met in Morton Hall, 
a dingy, barnlike room situated over a saloon, and 
furnished severely with wooden benches, many 
spittoons, and a speaker's table decorated with a 
large pitcher for ice-water. The regular meetings 
came once a month and Roosevelt attended them 
faithfully, because he never did things by halves, 
and having made up his mind to learn the mechan- 
ism of politics, he would not neglect any detail. 

Despite the shyness which ill health caused him 
in his youth, he was really a good "mixer," and, 
growing to feel more sure of himself, he met men on 
equal terms. More than that, he had the art of in- 
spiring confidence in persons of divers sorts and, 
as he was really interested in knowing their thoughts 
and desires, it never took him long to strike up 
friendly relations with them. 

Jake Hess, the Republican " Boss" of the Twenty- 
first District, evidently eyed Roosevelt with some 
suspicion, for the newcomer belonged to a class 
which Jake did not desire to see largely represented 
in the business of "practical politics," and so he 
treated Roosevelt with a "rather distant affability. " 
The young man, however, got on well enough with 
the heelers — the immediate trusty followers of 
the Boss — and with the ordinary members. They 



BREAKING INTO POLITICS 2g 

probably marveled to see him so unlike what they 
believed a youth of the "kid-glove" and "silk- 
stocking" set would be, and they accepted him as 
a "good fellow." 

Of all Roosevelt's comrades during this first year 
of initiation, a young Irishman named Joe Murray 
was nearest to him, an honest fellow, fearless and 
stanch, who remained his loyal friend for forty 
years. Murray began as a Democrat of the Tammany 
Hall tribe, but having been left in the lurch by his 
Boss at an election, he determined to punish the 
Boss, and this he did at the first opportunity by 
throwing his influence on the side of the Republican 
candidate. The Republicans won, although the 
district was overwhelmingly Democratic, and Mur- 
ray joined the Republican Party. He worked in 
the district where Jake Hess ruled. Like other even 
greater men, Jake became arrogant and treated 
the gang under him with condescension. Murray 
resented this and resolved that he would humble 
the Boss by supporting Roosevelt as a candidate 
for the Assembly. Hess protested, but could no<- 
prevent the nomination and during the campaign 
he seems to have supported the candidate whom 
he had not chosen. 

Roosevelt sent the following laconic appeal to 
some of the voters of his district: 



30 THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

New York, November i, 1881. 
Dear Sir: 

Having been nominated as a candidate for member of 
Assembly for this District, I would esteem it a compliment 
if you honor me with your vote and personal influence on 
Election day. 

Very respectfully 

Theodore Roosevelt 

Certainly, nothing could be simpler than this 
card, which contains no puff of either the party or 
the candidate, or no promise. It drew a cordial re- 
sponse. 

Twenty-first Assembly District. 
40th to 86th Sts., Lexington to 7th Aves, 

We cordially recommend the voters of the Twenty-first 
Assembly District to cast their ballots for 

Theodore Roosevelt 

for member of Assembly 

and take much pleasure in testifying to our appreciation of 
his high character and standing in the community. He is 
conspicuous for his honesty and integrity, and eminently 
qualified to represent the District in the Assembly. 

New York November i, 1881 

F. A. P. Barnard, William T. Black, Willard Bullard, 
Joseph H. Choate, William A. Darling, Henry E. 
Davies, Theodore W. Dwight, Jacob Hess, Morris K. 
Jesup, Edward Mitchell, William F. Morgan, Chas. S. 
Robinson, Elihu Root, Jackson S. Shultz, Elliott F. 
Shepard, Gustavus Tuckerman, S. H. Wales, W. H. 
Webb. 



BREAKING INTO POLITICS 31 

This list bears the names of at least two men who 
will be long remembered. There are also several 
others which were doubtless of more political value 
to the aspirant to ofhce in 1 881. 

Just after the election Roosevelt wrote to his 
classmate, Charles G. Washburn: 

Too true, too true; I have become a "political hack." Find- 
ing it would not interfere much with my law, I accepted the 
nomination to the Assembly and was elected by 1500 majority, 
leading the ticket by 600 votes. But don't think I am going 
to go into politics after this year, for I am not. 

Roosevelt's allusion to the law requires the state- 
ment that in the autumn of 1880 he had begun to 
read law in the office of his uncle, Robert Roosevelt; 
not that he had a strong leaning to the legal pro- 
fession, but that he believed that every one, no 
matter how well off he might be, ought to be able 
to support himself by some occupation or profession. 
Also, he could not endure being idle, and he knew 
that the slight political work on which he em- 
barked when he joined the Twenty-first District 
Republican Club would take but little of his time. 
During that first year out of college he established 
himself as a citizen, not merely politically, but so- 
cially. On his birthday in 1880 he married Miss Lee 
and they set up their home at 6 West Fifty-seventh 
Street; he joined social and literary clubs and ex- 



32 THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

tended his athletic interests beyond wrestling and 
boxing to hunting, rifle practice, and polo. 

His law studies seem to have absorbed him less 
than anything else that he undertook during all 
his life. He could not fail to be interested in them, but 
he never plunged into them with all his might and 
main as if he intended to make them his chief con- 
cern. For a while he had a desk in the ofifice of the 
publishers, G. P. Putnam's Sons: but Major George 
Putnam recalls that he did little except suggest 
wonderful projects, which "had to be sat down 
upon." Already a love of writing infected him. 
Even before he left Harvard he had begun "A His- 
tory of the Naval War of 1812," and this he worked 
on eagerly. The Putnams published it in 1882. 

One incident of Roosevelt's canvass must not be 
overlooked. The Red Indians of old used to make 
their captives run the gauntlet between two lines of 
warriors: political bosses in New York in 1880 made 
their nominee run the gauntlet of all the saloon- 
keepers in their district. Accordingly, Jake Hess 
and Joe Murray proceeded to introduce Roosevelt 
to the rum-sellers of Sixth Avenue. The first they 
visited received Theodore with injudicious conde- 
scension almost as if he were a suppliant. He said 
he hoped that the young candidate, if elected, would 
treat the liquor men fairly, to which the "suppliant" 



BREAKING INTO POLITICS 33 

replied that he intended to treat all Interests fairly. 
The suggestion that liquor licenses were too high 
brought the retort that they were not high enough. 
Thereupon, the wary Hess and the discreet Joe 
Murray found an excuse for hurrying Roosevelt out 
of the saloon, and they told him that he had better 
look after his friends on Fifth Avenue and that they 
would look after the saloon-keepers on Sixth Avenue. 
That any decent candidate should have to pass in 
review before the saloon-keepers and receive their 
approval, Is so monstrous as to be grotesque. That 
a possible President of the United States should 
be the victim needs no comment. It was thoroughly 
characteristic of Roosevelt that he balked at the 
first trial. 

He says In his "Autobiography" that he was not 
conscious of going into politics to benefit other peo- 
ple, but to secure for himself a privilege to which 
every one was entitled. That privilege was self- 
government. When his "kid-glove" friends laughed 
at him for deliberately choosing to leap Into the 
political mire, he told them that the governing class 
ought to govern, and that not they themselves but 
the bosses and "heelers" were the real governors of 
New York City. Not the altruistic desire to reform, 
but the perfectly practical resolve to enjoy the polit- 
ical rights to which he had a claim was his leading 



34 THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

motive. It is important to understand this because 
it will explain much of his action as a statesman. 
Roosevelt is the greatest idealist in American public 
life since Lincoln; but his idealism, like Lincoln's, 
always had a firm, intelligent, practical footing. 

Roosevelt himself thus describes his work during 
his first year in the New York Assembly: 

I paid attention chiefly while in the Legislature to laws 
for the reformation of Primaries and of the Civil Service and 
endeavored to have a certain Judge Westbrook impeached, 
on the ground of corrupt collusion with Jay Gould and the 
prostitution of his high judicial office to serve the purpose of 
wealthy and unscrupulous stock gamblers, but was voted 
down. 

This brief statement gives no idea of either the 
magnitude or quality of his work in which, like 
young David, he went forth to smite Goliath, the 
Giant Corruption,, entrenched for years in the 
Albany State House. I do not believe that in at- 
tacking the monster, Roosevelt thought that he 
was displaying unusual courage, much less that he 
was winning the crown of a moral hero. He simply 
saw a mass of abuse and wickedness which every 
decent person ought to repudiate. Most decent per- 
sons saw it, too, but convention, or self-interest, 
party afhliation, or unromantic, every-day cow- 
ardice, made them hold their tongues. 

Being assigned to committees which had some 



BREAKING INTO POLITICS 35 

of the most important concerns of New York City 
in charge, Roosevelt had the advantage given by 
his initiation into political methods as practiced in 
the Twenty-first District of knowing a little more 
than his colleagues knew about the local issues. 

Three months of the session elapsed before he 
stood up in the Chamber and attacked point-blank 
one formidable champion of corruption. Listen to 
an anonymous writer in the Saturday Evening Post: 

It was on April 6, 1882, that Roosevelt took the floor in 
the Assembly and demanded that Judge Westbrook, of New- 
bury, be impeached. And for sheer moral courage that act is 
probably supreme in Roosevelt's life thus far. He must have 
expected failure. Even his youth and idealism and ignorance 
of public affairs could not blind him to the apparently inevit- 
able consequences. Yet he drew his sword and rushed appar- 
ently to destruction — alone, and at the very outset of his 
career, and in disregard of the pleadings of his closest friends 
and the plain dictates of political wisdom. 

That speech — the deciding act in Roosevelt's career — is 
not remarkable for eloquence. But it is remarkable for fear- 
less candor. He called thieves thieves, regardless of their mil- 
lions; he slashed savagely at the Judge and the Attorney- 
General ; he told the plain unvarnished truth as his indignant 
eyes saw it.^ 

Astonishment verging on consternation filled the 
Assemblymen, who, through long experience, were 
convinced that Truth was too precious to be ex- 
hibited in public. Worldly wisdom came to the aid 

1 Riis, 54-55. 



36 THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

of the veteran Republican leader who wished to 
treat the assault as if it were the unripe explosion 
of youth. The callowness of his young friend must 
excuse him. He doubtless meant well, but his inex- 
perience prevented him from realizing that many 
a reputation in public life had been shattered by 
just such loose charges. He felt sure that when the 
young man had time to think it over, he would 
modify his language. It would be fitting, therefore, 
for that body to show its kindliness by giving the 
new member from New York City leisure to think 
it over. 

Little did this official defender of corruption un- 
derstand Mr. Roosevelt, whose business it was then 
to uphold Right. That was a question in which ex- 
pediency could have no voice. He regarded neither 
the harm he might possibly do to his political future 
nor to the standing of the Republican Party. I sus- 
pect that he smarted under the leader's attempt to 
treat him as a young man whose breaks instead of 
causing surprise must be condoned. Although the 
magnates of the party pleaded with him and urged 
him not to throw away his usefulness, he rose again 
in the Assembly next day and renewed his demand 
for an investigation of Judge Westbrook. Day after 
day he repeated his demand. The newspapers 
throughout the State began to give more and more 



BREAKING INTO POLITICS 37 

attention to him. The public applauded, and the 
legislators, who had sat and listened to him with 
contemptuous indifference, heard from their constit- 
uents. At last, on the eighth day, by a vote of 104 
to 6 the Assembly adopted Roosevelt's resolution 
and appointed an investigating committee. The evi- 
dence taken amply justified Roosevelt's charges, in 
spite of which the committee gave a whitewashing 
verdict. Nevertheless the "young reformer" had not 
only proved his case, but had suddenly made a name 
for himself in the State and in the Country. 

Before his first term ended he discovered that 
there were enemies of honest government quite as 
dangerous as the open supporters of corruption. 
These were the demagogues who, under the pretense 
of attacking the wicked interests, introduced bills 
for the sole purpose of being bought off. Sly fellows 
they were and sneaks. Against their "strike" legis- 
lation Roosevelt had also to fight. His chief friend at 
Albany was Billy O'Neil, who kept a little cross- 
roads grocery up in the Adirondacks; had thought 
for himself on American politics; had secured his 
election to the Assembly without the favor of the 
Machine; and now acted there with as much inde- 
pendence as his young colleague of the Twenty-first 
District. Roosevelt remarks that the fact that two 
persons, sprung from such totally different sur- 



38 THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

roundings, should come together in the Legislature 
was an example of the fine result which American 
democracy could achieve. 

The session came to a close, and although Roose- 
velt had protested the year before that he was not 
going into politics as a career, he allowed himself to 
be renominated. Naturally, his desire to continue in 
and complete the task in which he had already ac- 
complished much was whetted. He would have been 
a fool if he had not known, what every one else 
knew, that he had made a very brilliant record dur- 
ing his first year. A false standard which comes very 
near hypocrisy imposes a ridiculous mock modesty 
on great men in modern times: as if Shakespeare 
alone should be unaware that he was Shakespeare or 
that Napoleon or Darwin or Lincoln or Cavour 
should each be ignorant of his worth. Better vanity, 
if you will, than sham modesty. There was no harm 
done that Roosevelt at twenty-three felt proud of 
being recognized as a power in the Assembly. We 
must never forget also that he was a fighter, and 
that his first contests in Albany had so roused his 
blood that he longed to fight those battles to a fin- 
ish, that is, to victory. We must make a distinction 
also in his motives. He did not strain every nerve to 
win a cause because it was his cause; but having 
adopted a cause which his heart and mind told him 



BREAKING INTO POLITICS 39 

was good, he strove to make that cause triumph be- 
cause he beUeved it to be good. 

So he allowed himself to be renominated and he 
was reelected by 2000 majority, although in that 
autumn of 1882 the Democratic candidate for Gov- 
ernor, Grover Cleveland, swept New York State by 
192,000 and carried into office by the momentum of 
his success many of the minor candidates on the 
Democratic ticket. 

The year 1883 opened with the cheer of dawn in 
New York politics. Cleveland, the young Governor 
of forty-four, had proved himself fearless, public- 
spirited, and conscientious. So had Roosevelt, the 
young Assemblyman of twenty-three. One was a 
Democrat, one a Republican, but they were alike in 
courage and in holding honesty and righteousness 
above their party platforms. 

Roosevelt pursued in this session the methods 
which had made him famous and feared in the pre- 
ceding. He admits that he may have had for a while 
a "swelled head," for in the chaos of conflicting 
principles and no-principles in which his life was 
thrown, he decided to act independently and to let 
his conscience determine his action on each question 
which arose. He flocked by himself on a peak. He 
was too practical, however, to hold this course long. 
Experience had already taught him that under a 



40 THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

constitutional government parties which advocate 
or oppose issues must rule, and that in order to make 
your issues win you must secure a majority of the 
votes. Not by playing solitaire, therefore, not by 
standing aloof as one crying in the wilderness, but by 
honestly persuading as many as you could to sup- 
port you, could you promote the causes which you 
had at heart. The professional politicians and the 
Machine leaders still thought that he was stubborn 
and too conceited to listen to reason, but in reality 
he had a few intimates like Billy O'Neil and Mike 
Costello with whom he took counsel, and a group of 
thirty or forty others, both Republican and Demo- 
cratic, with whom he acted harmoniously on many 
questions. 

They all united to fight the Black-Horse Cavalry, 
as the gang of "strike" legislators was called. One 
of the most insidious bills pushed by these rascals 
aimed at redu-^ing the fares on the New York Ele- 
vated Railway from ten cents to five cents. It 
seemed so plausible! So entirely in the interest of the 
poor man! Indeed, the affairs of the Elevated took 
up much of Roosevelt's attention and enriched for 
years the Black-Horse Cavalrymen and the lobby- 
ists. He also forced the Assembly to appoint a com- 
mission to investigate the New York City police 
officials, the police department being at that time 



BREAKING INTO POLITICS 41 

notoriously corrupt. They employed as their counsel 
George Bliss, a lawyer of prominence, with a sharp 
tongue and a contempt for self-constituted re- 
formers. While Roosevelt was cross-examining one 
of the officials, Bliss, who little understood the man 
he was dealing with, interrupted with a scornful and 
impertinent remark. "Of course you do not mean 
that, Mr. Bliss," said the young reformer with im- 
pressive politeness, "for if you did we should have to 
put you out in the street." Even in those early days, 
when Roosevelt was in dead earnest, he had a way 
of pointing his forefinger and of fixing his under jaw 
which the person whom he addressed could not mis- 
take. That forefinger was as menacing as a seven- 
shooter. Mr. Bliss, with all the prestige of a success- 
ful career at the bar behind him, quickly understood 
the meaning of the look, the gesture, and the studied 
courtesy. He deemed it best to retract and apologize 
at once; and it was. 

Roosevelt consented to run for a third term and 
he was elected in spite of the opposition of the vari- 
ous elements which united to defeat him. Such a 
man was too dangerous to be acceptable to Jay 
Gould and the "interests," to Black-Horse Cavalry, 
and to gangs of all kinds who made a living, di- 
rectly or indirectly, by office-holding. His friends 
urged him for the speakership; but this was asking 



42 THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

too much of the Democratic majority, and besides, 
there were RepubHcans who had winced under his 
scourge the year before and were glad enough to de- 
feat him now. Occasionally, some kind elderly friend 
would still attempt to show him the folly of his 
ways, and we hear reports of one gentleman, a mem- 
ber of the Assembly and an "old friend," who told 
him that the great concern in life was Business, and 
that lawyers and judges, legislators and Congress- 
men, existed to serve the ends of Business. "There is 
no politics in politics," said this moral guide and 
sage. But he could not budge the young man, who 
believed that there are many considerations more 
important than the political. 

During this third year, he made a straight and 
gallant fight to improve the condition under which 
cigars were made in New York City. By his own in- 
vestigation, he found that the cigar-makers lived in 
tenements, in one room, perhaps two, with their 
families and often a boarder; these made the cigars 
which the public bought, in ignorance of the facts. 
Roosevelt proposed that, as a health measure which 
would benefit alike the cigar-makers and the public, 
this evil practice be prohibited and that the police 
put a stop to it. His bill passed in 1884, but the 
next year the Court of Appeals declared it uncon- 
stitutional, because it deprived the tenement-house 



BREAKING INTO POLITICS 43 

people of their liberty and would injure the owners of 
the tenements if they were not allowed to rent their 
property to these tenants. In its decision, the court 
indulged in nauseating sanctimony of this sort: "It 
cannot be perceived how the cigar-maker is to be 
improved in his health, or his morals, by forcing him 
from his home and its hallowed associations and 
beneficent influences to ply his trade elsewhere." 
This was probably not the first time when Roose- 
velt was enraged to find the courts of justice sleekly 
upholding hot-beds of disease and vice, on the pre- 
tense that they were protecting liberty. Comment- 
ing on this episode, Mr. Washburn well says: "As 
applied to the kind of tenement I have referred to, 
this reference to the 'home and its hallowed associ- 
ations* seems grotesque or tragic depending upon 
the point of view." ^ 

Amid work of this kind, fighting and fearless, 
constantly adding to his reputation among the good 
as a high type of reformer, and adding to the detes- 
tation in which the bad held him, he completed his 
third term. He resolutely refused to serve again and 
declined the offers which were pressed upon him to 
run for Congress; nor did he accept a place on the 
Republican National Committee. 

The death of his mother on February 12, 1884, 
^ Washburn, 11. 



44 THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

followed In twenty-four hours by that of his wife, 
who died after the birth of a daughter, brought sor- 
row upon Roosevelt which made the burden of his 
political work her.vier and caused him to consider 
how he should readjust his life, for he was first of all 
a man of deep family affections and the loss of his 
wife left him adrift. 

To S. N. D. North, editor of the Utica Herald and 
a well-wisher of his, he wrote from Albany on April 
30, 1884: 

Dear Mr. North: I wish to write you a few words just to 
thank you for your kindness towards me, and to assure you 
that my head will not be turned by what I well know was a 
mainly accidental success. Although not a very old man, I 
have yet lived a great deal in my life, and I have known sor- 
row too bitter and joy too keen to allow me to become either 
cast down or elated for more than a very brief period over 
success or defeat. 

I have very little expectation of being able to keep on in 
politics; my success so far has only been won by absolute 
indifference to my future career; for I doubt if any one can 
realize the bitter and venomous hatred with which I am re- 
garded by the very politicians who at Utica supported me, 
under dictation from masters who were influenced by political 
considerations that were national and not local in their scope. 
I realize very thoroughly the absolutely ephemeral nature of 
the hold I have upon the people, and the very real and posi- 
tive hostility I have excited among the politicians. I will 
not stay in public life unless I can do so on my own terms; 
and my ideal, whether lived up to or not, is rather a high one. 

For very many reasons I will not mind going back into 
private life for a few years. My work this winter has been 



BREAKING INTO POLITICS 45 

very harassing, and I feel both tired and restless; for the 
next few months I shall probably be in Dakota, and I think I 
shall spend the next two or three years in making shooting 
trips, either in the Far West or in the Northern woods — and 
there will be plenty of work to do writing.-^ 

This letter is a striking revelation of the inmost 
intentions of the man of twenty-five, who already 
stood on a pinnacle where hard heads and mature 
might well have been dizzy. Evidently he knew him- 
self, and even in his brief experience with the world 
he understood how uncertain and evanescent are the 
winds of Fame. If he had ever suffered from a 
" swelled head," he was now cured. He felt the empti- 
ness of life's prizes when the dearest who should 
have shared them with him were dead. 
» Douglas, 41-42. 



CHAPTER III 

AT THE FIRST CROSSROADS 

THE year 1884 was a Presidential year, and 
Roosevelt was one of the four delegates-at- 
large ^ of New York State to the Republican National 
Convention at Chicago. The day seemed to have 
come for a new birth in American politics. The 
Republican Party was grown fat with four and 
twenty years of power, and the fat had overlain and 
smothered its noble aims. The party was arrogant, 
it was corrupt, it was unashamed. After the War, 
immense projects involving huge sums of money 
had to be managed, and the Republicans spent like 
spendthrifts when they did not spend like embez- 
zlers. I do not imply that the Democrats would not 
have done the same if they had been in command, 
or that there were not among them many who saw 
where their profit lay, and took it. The quadrupeds 
which feed at the Treasury trough are all of one 
species, no matter whether their skins be black or 
white. 

But now a new generation was springing up, with 

^ The other delegates-at-large were President Andrew D. White of 
Cornell University, J. T. Gilbert, and Edwin Packard. 



AT THE FIRST CROSSROADS 47 

its leaven of hope and idealism and its intuitive faith 
in honesty. More completely than any one else, 
Roosevelt embodied to the country the glorious 
promise of this new generation. But the old always 
dies hard after it has long been the blood and mind 
of a creed, a class, or a party. Terrible also is the 
blind, remorseless sweep of a custom which may 
have sprung up from good soil, not less than one 
spawned and nurtured in iniquity. Frankenstein 
laboriously constructing his monster seems to per- 
sonify society at its immemorial task of creating 
institutions; each institution as it becomes viable 
rends its creator. 

So the Republican Party lived on its traditions, 
its privileges, its appetites, its arrogance, and it 
refused to be transmuted by its youngest members. 
In 1876 it resorted to fraud to perpetuate Its hold on 
power. Unchastened in 1880, three hundred and six 
of its delegates attempted through thick and thin 
to force the nomination of General Grant for a third 
term. The chief opposing candidate was James G. 
Blaine, whose unsavory reputation, however, caused 
the majority of the convention which was not pledged 
to Grant to repudiate Blaine and to choose Garfield 
as a compromise. Then followed four years of fac- 
tional bitterness in the party, and when 1884 came 
round, Blaine's admirers pushed him to the front. 



48 THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

Blaine himself was not a person of delicate in- 
stinct. The repudiation which he had twice suffered 
by the better element of the Republican Party, 
seemed only to redouble his determination to be its 
candidate. He had much personal magnetism. Both 
in his methods and ideals, he represented perfectly 
the politicians who during the dozen years after 
Lincoln's death flourished at Washington, and at 
every State capitol in the Union. By the luck of a 
catching phrase applied to him by Robert G. Inger- 
soU, he stood before the imagination of the country 
"as the plumed knight," although on looking back 
we search in vain for any trait of knightliness or 
chivalry in him. For a score of years he filled the 
National Congress, House and Senate, with the 
bustle of his egotism. His knightly valor consisted 
in shaking his fist at the "Rebel Brigadiers" and in 
waving the "bloody shirt," feats which seemed to 
him heroic, no doubt, but which were safe enough, 
the Brigadiers being few and Blaine's supporters 
many. But where on the Nation's statute book do 
you find now a single important law fathered by 
him? What book contains one of his maxims for men 
to live by? Many persons still live who knew him, 
and remember him, but can any of them repeat a 
saying of his which passes current on the lips of 
Americans? So much sound an^ fury, so much 



AT THE FIRST CROSSROADS 49 

intrigue and sophistry, and self-seeking, and now 
the silence of an empty sepulchre! 

The better element of the Republican Party went 
to the Chicago Convention sworn to save the party 
from the disgrace of nominating Blaine. Roosevelt 
believed the charges against him, and by all that he 
had written and spoken, and by his political career, 
he was bound to oppose the politician, who, as 
Speaker of the National House, had, by the showing 
of his own letters, taken bribes from unscrupulous 
interests. In the convention, and in the committee 
meetings, and in the incessant parleys which pre- 
pare the work of a convention, Roosevelt fought un- 
waveringly against Blaine. The better element made 
Senator George F. Edmunds their candidate, and 
Roosevelt urged his nomination on all comers. 

When the convention met, Mr. Lodge, of Massa- 
chusetts, nominated J. R. Lynch, a negro from 
Mississippi, to be temporary chairman, thereby 
heading off Powell Clayton, a veteran Republican 
"war-horse" and office-holder. Roosevelt had the 
honor — and it was an honor for so young a man — 
to make a speech, which proved to be effective, in 
Lynch's behalf; and when the vote was taken. Lynch 
was chosen by 424 to 384. This first victory over the 
Blaine Machine, the Edmunds men hailed as a good 
omen. 



50 THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

Roosevelt was chairman of the New York State 
delegation. The whirling days and nights at Chicago 
confirmed his position as a national figure, but he 
strove in vain in behalf of honesty. The majority 
of the delegates would not be gainsaid. They had 
come to Chicago resolved to elect James G. Blaine, 
and no other, and they would not quit until they 
had accomplished this. Pleas for morality and for 
party concord fell on deaf ears, as did warnings of 
the comfort which Blaine's nomination would give 
to their enemies. His supporters packed the great 
convention hall, and when his name was put in 
nomination, there followed a riot of cheers, which 
lasted the better part of an hour, and foreboded his 
success. 

As had been predicted, Blaine's nomination split 
the Republican Party. Many of the better element 
came out for Grover Cleveland, the Democratic 
candidate, who, as Governor of New York, had dis- 
played unfailing courage, integrity, and intelligence. 
Others again, disgusted with many of the principles 
and leaders of both parties, formed themselves into 
a special group or party of Independents. They were 
hateful alike to the Bosses who controlled the 
Republican or Democratic organization ; and Charles 
A. Dana, of the New York Sun, who took care never 
to be "on the side of the angels," derisively dubbed 



AT THE FIRST CROSSROADS 51 

them "mugwumps" —a title which may carry an 
honorable meaning to posterity. 

I was one of these Independents, and if I cite my 
own case, it is not because it was of any importance 
to the public, but because it was typical. During 
the days of suspense before the Chicago Convention 
met, the proposed nomination of Blaine weighed 
upon me like a nightmare. I would not admit to 
myself that so great a crime against American ideals 
could be committed by delegates who represented 
the standard of any political party, and were drawn 
from all over the country. I cherished, what seems 
to me now the sadly foolish dream, that with Roose- 
velt in the convention the abomination could not 
be done. I thought of him as of a paladin against 
whom the forces of evil would dash themselves to 
pieces. I thought of him as the young and dauntless 
spokesman of righteousness whose words would 
silence the special pleaders of iniquity. I wrote him 
and besought him to stand firm. 

There followed the days of suspense when the 
newspapers brought news of the wild proceedings 
at the convention, and for me the shadow deepened. 
Then the telegraph reported Blaine's triumphant 
nomination. I waited, we all waited, to learn what 
the delegates who opposed him intended to do. One 
morning a dispatch in the New York Tribune an- 



52 THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

nounced that Roosevelt would not bolt. That very 
day I had a little note from him saying that he had 
done his best in Chicago, that the result sickened 
him, that he should, however, support the Republi- 
can ticket; but he intended to spend most of the 
summer and autumn hunting in the West. 

I was dumfounded. I felt as Abolitionists felt 
after Webster's Seventh of March speech. My old 
acquaintance, our trusted leader, whose career in 
the New York Assembly we had watched with an 
almost holy satisfaction, seemed to have strangely 
abandoned the fundamental principles which we and 
he had believed in, and he had so nobly upheld. 
Whittier's poem "Ichabod" seemed to have been 
aimed at him, especially in its third stanza: 

"Oh, dumb be passion's stormy rage, 
When he who might 
Have lighted up and led his age, 
Falls back in night." 

Amid the lurid gleams and heat of such a disap- 
pointment, men cannot see clearly. They impute 
wrong motives, base motives, to the backslider. In 
their wrath, they assume that only guilt can account 
for his defection. 

We see plainly enough now that we misjudged 
Roosevelt. We assumed that because he was with us 
in the crusade for pure politics, he agreed with us in 



AT THE FIRST CROSSROADS 53 

the estimate we put on party loyalty. Independents 
and mugwumps felt little reverence and set even 
less value on political parties, which we regarded 
simply as instruments to be used in carrying out 
policies. If a party pursued a policy contrary to our 
own, we left it as we should leave a train which we 
found going in the wrong direction. There was 
nothing sacred in a political party. 

In assuming that Roosevelt must have coincided 
with us in these views, we did him wrong. For he 
held then, and had held since he first entered poli- 
tics, that party transcended persons, and that only 
in the gravest case imaginable was one justified in 
bolting his party because one disapproved of its 
candidate. He did not respect Blaine; on the con- 
trary, he regarded Blaine as a bad man: but he be- 
lieved that the future of the country would be much 
safer under the control of the Republican Party 
than under the Democratic. This doctrine exposes 
its adherents to obvious criticism, if not to suspicion. 
It enables persons of callous consciences to support 
bad platforms and bad candidates without blush- 
ing; but after all, who shall say at what point you 
are justified in bolting your party? The decision 
must rest with the individual. And although it was 
hard for the bolting Independents in 1884 to accept 
the tenet that party transcends persons, it was 



54 THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

Roosevelt's reason, and with him sincere. Some of 
his colleagues in the better element who had strug- 
gled as he had to defeat Blaine, and then, almost 
effusively, exalted Blaine as their standard-bearer, 
were less fortunate than he in having their sincerity 
doubted. George William Curtis, Carl Schurz, 
Charles Francis Adams, and other Independents 
of their intransigent temper formed a Mugwump 
Party and this turned the scale in electing Grover 
Cleveland President. 

There used to be much discussion as to who per- 
suaded Roosevelt, although he detested Blaine, to 
stand by the Republicans in 1884. Those were the 
days when very few of his critics understood that, 
in spite of his youth, he had already thought for 
himself on politics and had reached certain conclu- 
sions as to fundamental principles. These critics 
assumed that he must have been won over by Henry 
Cabot Lodge, with whom he had been intimate 
since his Harvard days, and who was supposed to 
be his political mentor. The truth is, however, that 
Roosevelt had formed his own opinion about bolt- 
ing, and that he and Lodge, in discussing possibili- 
ties before they went to the Chicago Convention, had 
independently agreed that they must abide by the 
choice of the party there. They held, and a majority 
of men in similar position still hold, that delegates 



AT THE FIRST CROSSROADS 55 

cannot in honor abandon the nominee chosen by 
the majority in a convention which they attend as 
delegates. If the rule, "My man, or nobody," were 
to prevail, there would be no use in holdmg con- 
ventions at all. And after that of 1884, George 
William Curtis, one of the chief leaders of the In- 
dependents, admitted that Roosevelt, in staymg 
with the Republican Party, played the game fairly. 
While Curtis himself bolted and helped to organize 
the Mugwumps, Roosevelt, after his trip to the 
West, returned to New York and took a vigorous 
part in the campaign. 

Nevertheless, Roosevelt's decision, in 1884, to 
cleave to the Republican Party disappointed many 
of us. We thought of him as a lost leader. Some 
critics in their ignorance were inclined to impute 
false motives to him; but in time, the cloud of sus- 
picion rolled away and his action in that crisis was 
not laid up against him. The election of Cleveland 
relieved him of seeming perfunctorily to uphold 
Blaine. 



A 



CHAPTER IV 

NATURE THE HEALER 

PERFECT biography would show definitely 
the interaction between mind and body. At 
present we can only guess what this interaction 
may be. In some cases the relations are evident, 
but in most they are vague and often unsuspected. 
The psychologists, whose pretensions are so great 
and whose actual results are still so small, may per- 
haps lead, an age or two hence, to the desired knowl- 
edge. But the biographer of today must beware 
of adopting the unripe formulas of any immature 
science. Nevertheless, he must watch, study, and 
record all the facts pertaining to his subject, al- 
though he cannot explain them. 

Theodore Roosevelt was a wonderful example 
of the partnership of mind and body, and any one 
who writes his biography in detail will do well to 
pay great heed to this intricate interlocking. I can 
do no more than allude to it here. We have seen 
that Roosevelt from his earliest days had a quick 
mind, happily not precocious, and a weak body 
which prevented him from taking part in normal 
physical activity and the play and sport of boy- 



NATURE THE HEALER 57 

hood. So his intellectual life grew out of scale to his 
physical. Then he set to work by the deliberate ap- 
plication of will-power to develop his body, and 
when he entered Harvard he was above the average 
youth in strength. Before he graduated, those who 
saw him box or wrestle beheld a fellow somewhat 
slim and light, but unusually well set up. During 
the succeeding four years he never allowed his duties 
as Assemblyman to encroach upon his exercise; 
on the contrary, he played regularly and he played 
hard, adding new kinds of sport to develop new 
faculties and to give the spice of variety. He rode 
to hounds with the Meadowbrook Hunt; he took 
up polo ; and he boxed and wrestled as in his college 
days. 

In a few years Roosevelt became physically a 
very powerful man. I recall my astonishment the 
first time I saw him, after the lapse of several years, 
to find him with the neck of a Titan and with 
broad shoulders and stalwart chest, instead of the 
city-bred, slight young friend I had known earlier. 
His body was now equal to any burden or strain 
which his mind might have to endure; and hence- 
forth it is no idle fancy that suggests a perpetual 
competition between the two. Thanks to his ex- 
traordinary will, however, he never allowed his 
body to get control; but, as appetite comes with 



58 THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

eating, so his strong and healthy muscles craved 
more and more exercise as he used them. And now 
he took a novel way to gratify them. 

Ever since his first taste of camp life, when he 
went into the Maine Woods under the guidance 
of Bill Sewall and Will Dow, Roosevelt felt the lure 
of wild nature, and on many successive seasons he 
repeated these trips. Gradually, fishing and hunting 
in the wilderness of Maine or the Adirondacks did 
not afford him enough scope for his brimming vigor. 
He decided to go West, to the real West, where 
great game and Indians still survived, and the con- 
ditions of the few white men were almost as primi- 
tive as in the da^^s of the earliest explorers. When 
the session of 1883 adjourned, he started for North 
Dakota, then a territory with a few settlers, and 
among the Bad Lands on the Little Missouri he 
bought an interest in two cattle ranches, the Chim- 
ney Butte and the Elkhorn. The following year, 
after the Presidential campaign which placed Cleve- 
land in the White House, Roosevelt determined, 
as we saw in the letters I have quoted, to abandon 
the East for a time and to devote himself to a ranch- 
man 's life. He w^as still in deep grief at the loss of 
his wife and of his mother ; there was no immediate 
prospect of usefulness for him in politics; the con- 
ventions of civilization, as he knew them in New 



NATURE THE HEALER 59 

York City, palled upon him; a sure instinct whis- 
pered to him that he must break away and seek 
health of body and heart and soul among the re- 
mote, unspoiled haunts of primeval Nature. For 
nearly two years, with occasional intervals spent 
in the East, the Elkhorn Ranch at Medora was his 
home, and he has described the life of the ranchman 
and cow-puncher in pages which are sure to be read 
as long as posterity takes any interest in knowing 
about the transition of the American West from 
wilderness to civilization. He shared in all the work 
of the ranch. He took with a "frolic welcome" the 
humdrum of its routine as well as its excitements 
and dangers. He says that he does not believe that 
there was ever any more attractive life for a vigor- 
ous young fellow than this, and assuredly no one 
else has glorified it as Roosevelt did with his pen. 

At one time or another he performed all the duties 
of a ranchman. He went on long rides after the cattle, 
he rounded them up, he helped to brand them and 
to cut out the beeves destined for the Eastern mar- 
ket. He followed the herd when it stampeded during 
a terrific thunderstorm. In winter there was often 
need to save the wandering cattle from a sudden 
and deadly blizzard. The log cabin or "shack" in 
which he dwelt was rough, and so was the fare; com- 
forts were few. He chopped the cottonwood which 



6o THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

they used for fuel; he knew how to care for the 
ponies; and once at least he passed more than 
twenty-four hours in the saddle without sleep. Ac- 
cording to the best standards, he says, he was not 
a fine horseman, but it is clear that he could do 
everything with a horse which had to be done, and 
that he never stopped from fatigue. "When they 
needed fresh meat, he would shoot it. In short, he 
held his own under all the hardships and require- 
ments demanded of a cowboy or ranchman. 

To adapt himself to these wild conditions of na- 
ture and work was, however, only a part of his ex- 
perience. Even more dangerous than pursuing a 
stampeding herd at night over the plains, and plung- 
ing into the Little Missouri after it, was intercourse 
with some of the lawless nomads of that pioneer 
region. Nomads they were, though they might set- 
tle down to work for a while on one ranch, and then 
pass on to another; the sort of creatures who loafed 
in the saloons of the little villages and amused them- 
selves by running amuck and shooting up the town. 
These men, and indeed nearly all of the pioneers, 
held the man from the civilized East, the "tender- 
foot, " in scorn. They took it for granted that he was 
a weakling, that he had soft ideas of life and was 
stuck-up or affected. Now Roosevelt saw that in 
order to win their trust and respect, he must show 



NATURE THE HEALER 6i 

himself equal to their tasks, a true comrade, who 
accepted their code of courage and honor. The fact 
that he wore spectacles was against him at the out- 
set, because they associated spectacles with Eastern 
schoolmasters and incompetence. They called him 
"Four Eyes," at first with derision, but they soon 
discovered that in him they had no "tenderfoot" 
to deal with. He shot as well as the best of them; he 
rode as far; he never complained of food or tasks 
or hardship; he met every one on equal terms. 
Above all, he left no doubt as to his courage. He 
would not pick a quarrel nor would he avoid one. 
Many stories of his prowess circulated; mere heck- 
ling, or a practical joke, he took with a laugh; as 
when some of the men changed the saddle from his 
pony to a bucking broncho. 

But he knew where to draw the line. At Medora, 
for instance, the Marquis de Mores, a French settler, 
assumed the attitude of a feudal proprietor. Having 
been the first to squat in that region he regarded 
those who came later as interlopers, and he and his 
men acted very sullenly. They even carried their 
ill-will and intimidation to the point of shooting. 
In due time the Marquis discovered cause for griev- 
ance against Roosevelt, and he sent him a letter 
warning the newcomer that if the cause were not 
removed the Marquis knew how one gentleman 



62 THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

settles a dispute with another. Roosevelt despised 
dueling as a silly practice, which would not deter- 
mine justice between disputants; but he knew that 
in Cowboy Land the duel, being regarded as a test 
of courage, must not be ignored by him. Any man 
who declined a challenge lost caste and had better 
leave the country at once. So Roosevelt within an 
hour dispatched a reply to the surly Marquis saying 
that he was ready to meet him at any time and 
naming the rifle, at twelve paces' distance, as the 
weapon that he preferred. The Marquis, a formida- 
ble swordsman but no shot, sent back word, ex- 
pressing regret that Mr. Roosevelt had mistaken 
his meaning: in referring to "gentlemen knowing 
how to settle disputes," he meant that of course 
an amicable explanation would restore harmony. 
Thenceforward, he treated Roosevelt with effusive 
courtesy. Perhaps a chill ran down his back at 
the thought of standing up before an antagonist 
twelve paces away and that the fighters were to 
advance towards each other three paces after each 
round, until one of them was killed. 

So Theodore fought no duel with either the French 
Marquis or with any one else during his life in the 
West, but he had several encounters with local des- 
peradoes. One cold night in winter, having ridden 
far and knowing that he could reach no refuge for 



NATURE THE HEALER 63 

many hours, he unexpectedly saw a light. Going 
towards it, he found that it came from a cabin which 
served as saloon and tavern. On entering, he saw 
a group of loafers and drinkers who were apparently 
terrorized by a big fellow, rather more than half 
drunk, who proved to be the local bully. The func- 
tion of this person was to maintain his bullyship 
against all comers: accordingly, he soon picked on 
Roosevelt, who held his peace as long as he could. 
Then the rowdy, who grasped his pistols in his 
hands, ordered the "four-eyed tenderfoot" to come 
to the bar and set up drinks for the crowd. Roose- 
velt walked deliberately towards him, and before 
the bully suspected it, the *' tenderfoot" felled him 
with a sledgehammer blow. In falling, a pistol went 
off wide of its mark, and the bully lay in a faint. 
Before he could recover, Roosevelt stood over him 
ready to pound him again. But the bully did not 
stir, and he was carried off into another room. The 
crowd congratulated the stranger on having served 
him right. 

At another place, there was a "bad man" who 
surpassed the rest of his fellows in using foul lan- 
guage. Roosevelt, who loathed obscenity as he did 
any other form of filth, tired of this bad man's talk 
and told him very calmly that he liked him but not 
his nastiness. Instead of drawing his gun, as the by- 



64 THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

standers thought he would do, Jim looked sheepish 
acknowledging the charge, and changed his tone. 
He remained a loyal friend of his corrector. 

Cattle-thieves and horse-thieves infested the 
West of those days. To steal a ranchman's horse 
might not only cause him great annoyance, but 
even put his life in danger, and accordingly the 
rascals who engaged in this form of crime ranked 
as the worst of all and received no mercy when they 
were caught. If the sheriff of the region was lax, the 
settlers took the matter into their own hands, en- 
rolled themselves as vigilantes, hunted the thieves 
down, hanged those whom they captured, and shot 
at sight those who tried to escape. It happened that 
the sheriff, in whose jurisdiction Medora lay, al- 
lowed so many thieves to get off that he was sus- 
pected of being in collusion with them. The ranch- 
men held a meeting at which he was present and 
Roosevelt told him in very plain words their com- 
plaint against him and their suspicions. Though 
he was a hot-tempered man, and very quick on 
the trigger, he showed no willingness to shoot his 
bold young accuser; he knew, of course, that the 
ranchmen would have taken vengeance on him in 
a flash, but it is also possible that he recognized the 
truth of Roosevelt's accusation and felt compunc- 
tions. 



NATURE THE HEALER 65 

Some time later Roosevelt showed how a zealous 
officer of the law — he was the acting deputy sheriff 
— ought to behave. He had a boat in which he used 
to cross the Little Missouri to his herds on the other 
side. One day he missed the boat, its rope having 
been cut, and he inferred that it must have been 
stolen by three cattle-thieves who had been oper- 
ating in that neighborhood. By means of it they 
could easily escape, for there was no road along 
the river on which horsemen could pursue them. 
Notwithstanding this, Roosevelt resolved that they 
should not go free. In three days Bill Sewall and 
Dow built a flat, water-tight craft, on which they 
put enough food to last for a fortnight, and then all 
three started downstream. They had drifted and 
poled one hundred and fifty miles or more, before 
they saw a faint column of smoke in the bushes 
near the bank. It proved to be the temporary camp 
of the fugitives, whom they quickly took prisoners, 
put into the boat, and carried another one hundred 
and fifty miles down the river to the nearest town 
with a jail and a court. Going and coming, Roose- 
velt spent nearly three weeks, not to mention the 
hardships which he and his trusty men suffered on 
the way; but he had served Justice, and Justice 
must be served at any cost. When the story be- 
came known, the admiration of his neighbors for 



66 THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

his pluck and persistence rose ; but they wondered 
why he took the trouble to make the extra journey, 
in order to deliver the prisoners to the jail, Instead 
of shooting them where he overtook them. 

I chronicle these examples of Roosevelt's courage 
among the lawless gangs with whom he was thrown 
in North Dakota, because they reveal several quali- 
ties which came to be regarded as peculiarly Roose- 
veltian during the rest of his days. We are apt to 
speak of "mere" physical courage as being Inferior 
to moral courage; and doubtless there are many 
heroes unknown to the world who, under the tor- 
ture of disease or the poignancy of social Injustice 
and wrongs, deserve the highest crown of heroism. 
Men who would lead a charge in battle would shrink 
from denouncing an accepted convention or even 
from slighting a popular fashion. But after all, the 
instinct of the race is sound in revering those who 
give their lives without hesitation or regret at the 
point of deadly peril, or offer their own to save the 
lives of others. 

Roosevelt's experience established in him that 
physical courage which his soul had aspired to in boy- 
hood, when the consciousness of his bodily inferior- 
ity made him seem shy and almost timid. Now he 
had a bodily frame which could back up any reso- 
lution he might take. The emergencies in a ranch- 



NATURE THE HEALER 67 

man's career also trained him to be quick to will, 
instantaneous in his decisions, and equally quick in 
the muscular activity by which he carried them out. 
In a community whose members gave way to sudden 
explosions of passion, you might be shot dead un- 
less you got the drop on the other fellow first. The 
anecdotes I have repeated, indicate that Roosevelt 
must often have outsped his opponent in drawing. 
We learn from them, too, that he was far from 
being the pugnacious person whom many of his 
later critics insisted that he was. Having given am- 
ple proof to the frontiersmen that he had no fear, 
he resolutely kept the peace with them, and they had 
no desire to break peace with him. Bluster and swag- 
ger were foreign to his nature, and he loathed a bully 
as much as a coward. If we had not already had the 
record of his three years in the Legislature, in which 
he surprised his friends by his wonderful talent for 
mixing with all sorts of persons, we might marvel 
at his ability to meet the cowboys and ranchmen, 
and even the desperadoes, of the Little Missouri 
on equal terms, to win the respect of all of them, 
and the lifelong devotion of a few. They knew that 
the usual tenderfoot, however much he might wish 
to fraternize, was fended from them by his past, 
his traditions, his civilized life, his instincts; but 
in Roosevelt's case, there was no gulf, no barrier. 



68 THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

Even after he became President of the United States, 
I can no more imagine that he felt embarrassment 
in meeting any one, high or low, than that he scru- 
tinized the coat on a man's back In order to know 
how to treat him. 

To have gained solid health, to have gained mas- 
tery of himself, and to have put his social nature 
to the severest test and found it flawless, were valid 
results of his life on the Elkhorn Ranch. It imparted 
to him also a knowledge which was to prove most 
precious to him in the unforeseen future. For it 
taught him the immense diversity of the people, 
and consequently of the interests, of the United 
States. It gave him a national point of view, in 
which he perceived that the standards and desires 
of the Atlantic States were not all-inclusive or 
final. Yet while it impressed on him the importance 
of geographical considerations, it impressed, more 
deeply still, the fact that there are moral funda- 
mentals not to be measured by geography, or by 
time, or by race. Lincoln learned this among the 
pioneers of Illinois; in similar fashion Roosevelt 
learned it in the Bad Lands of Dakota with their 
pioneers and exiles from civilization, and from 
studying the depths of his own nature. 



CHAPTER V 

BACK TO THE EAST AND LITERATURE 

ONE September day in 1886, Roosevelt was 
reading a New York newspaper in his Elk- 
horn cabin, when he saw that he had been nomi- 
nated by a body of Independents as candidate for 
Mayor of New York City. Whether he had been 
previously consulted or not, I do not know, but he 
evidently accepted the nomination as a call, for he 
at once packed up his things and started East. The 
political situation in the metropolis was somewhat 
abnormal. The United Democracy had nominated for 
Mayor Abram S. Hewitt, a merchant of high stand- 
ing, one of those decent persons whom Tammany 
Hall puts forward to attract respectable citizens 
when it finds itself in a tight place and likely to be 
defeated. At such a pinch, Tammany even politely 
keeps in the background and allows it to appear 
that the decent candidate is wholly the choice of 
decent Democrats: for the Tammany Tiger wears, 
so to speak, a reversible skin which, when turned in- 
side out, shows neither stripes nor claws. Mr. Hew- 
itt's chief opponent was Henry George, put up 
by the United Labor Party, which had suddenly 



70 THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

swelled into importance, and had discovered in 
the author of ''Progress and Poverty" and in the 
advocate of the Single Tax a candidate whose pri- 
vate character was generally respected, even by 
those who most hated his economic teachings. The 
mere thought that such a Radical should be pro- 
posed for Mayor scared, not merely the Big Inter- 
ests, but the owners of real estate and intangible 
property. 

Against these redoubtable competitors, the In- 
dependents and Republicans pitted Roosevelt, hop- 
ing that his prestige and personal popularity would 
carry the day. He made a plucky campaign, but 
Hewitt won, with Henry George second. In his 
letter of acceptance he went straight at the mark, 
which was that the government of the city was 
strictly a business affair. "I very earnestly depre- 
cate," he says, "all attempts to introduce any class 
or caste feeling into the mayoralty contest. Labor- 
ers and capitalists alike are interested in having 
an honest and economical city government, and 
if elected I shall certainly strive to be the repre- 
sentative of all good citizens, paying heed to nothing 
whatever but the general well-being." ^ When Tarn- 
many reverses its hide, the Republicans in New York 
City need not expect victory; and in 1886 Henry 

^ Riis, loi. 



BACK TO THE EAST 71 

George drew off a good many votes which would 
ordinarily have been cast for Roosevelt. 

Nevertheless, the fight was worth making. It re- 
introduced him to the public, which had not heard 
him for two years, and it helped erase from men's 
memories the fact that he had supported Blaine in 
1884. His contest with Hewitt and George set him 
in his true light — a Republican by conviction, a 
party man, also by conviction, but above all the 
fearless champion of what he believed to be the 
right, in its struggle against economic heresy and 
political corruption. 

The election over, Roosevelt went to Europe, and 
on December 2, 1886, at St. George's, Hanover 
Square, London, he married Miss Edith Kermit 
Carow, of New York, whom he had known since 
his earliest childhood, the playmate of his sister 
Corinne, the little girl whose photograph had stirred 
up in him "homesickness and longings for the past," 
when he was a little boy in Paris. Cecil Spring-Rice, 
an old friend (subsequently British Ambassador 
at Washington), was his groomsman, and being 
married at St. George's, Theodore remarks, "made 
me feel as if I were living in one of Thackeray's 
novels." 

Mrs. Roosevelt's father came of Huguenot stock, 
the name being originally Quereau; the first French 



/ 
72 THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

immigrants of the family having migrated to New 
York in the seventeenth century at about the same 
time as Claes van Roosevelt. Like the Roosevelts, 
the Carows had so freely intermarried with English 
stock in America that the French origin of one was 
as little discernible in their descendants as was the 
Dutch origin of the other. Through her American 
line Mrs. Roosevelt traced back to Jonathan Ed- 
wards, the prolific ancestor of many persons who 
emerged above the common level by either their 
virtue or their badness. 

After spending several months in Europe, Mr. 
and Mrs. Roosevelt returned and settled at Oyster 
Bay, Long Island, where he had built, not long 
before, a country house on Sagamore Hill. His place 
there comprised many acres — a beautiful country of 
hill and hollow and fine tall trees. The Bay made in 
from Long Island Sound and seemed to be closed by 
the opposite shore, so that in calm weather you might 
mistake it for a lake. This home was thoroughly 
adapted for Roosevelt's needs. Being only thirty 
miles from New York, with a railroad near by, con- 
venient but not intrusive, it gave easy access to the 
city, but was remote enough to discourage casual 
or undesired callers. It had sufficient land to carry 
on farming and to sustain the necessary horses and 
domestic cattle. Mrs, Roosevelt supervised it; ne 



BACK TO THE EAST 73 

simply loved it and got distraction from his more 
pressing affairs; if he had chosen to withdraw from 
these he might have devoted himself to the pleasing 
and leisurely life of a gentleman farmer. 

For a while his chief occupation was literary. 
Into this he pitched with characteristic energy. 
His innate craving for self-expression could never 
be satiated by speaking alone, and now, since he 
filled no public position which would be a cause or 
perhaps an excuse for speaking, he wrote with all 
the more enthusiasm. 

Although he was less than seven years out of 
college, his political career had given him a na- 
tional reputation, which helped and was helped by 
the vogue of his writings. The American public 
had come to perceive that Theodore Roosevelt 
could do nothing commonplace. The truth was, 
that he did many things that other men did which 
ceased to be commonplace only when he did them. 
Scores of other young men went on hunting trips 
after big game in the Rockies or the Selkirks, and 
even ranching had been engaged In by the enter- 
prising and the adventurous, who hoped to find it 
a short way to a fortune. But whether as ranch- 
man or as hunter, Roosevelt was better known than 
all the rest. His skill in describing his experiences 
no doubt largely accounted for this; but the fact 



74 THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

that the experiences were his, was the ultimate ex- 
planation. 

Roosevelt began to write very early. He thought 
that the instruction in rhetoric which he received 
at Harvard enlightened him, and during his Senior 
year he began the "History of the Naval War of 
1812," which he completed and published in 1882. 
This work at once won recognition for him, and it 
differed from the traditional accounts, embedded 
in the school histories of the United States, in doing 
full justice to the British naval operations. Probably, 
for the first time, our people realized that the War 
of 1812 had not been a series of victories, startling 
and irresistible, for the American Navy. Nearly ten 
years later, Roosevelt in the "Winning of the West" 
made his second excursion into history. These 
volumes, which eventually numbered six, are re- 
garded by experts in the subject as of great value, 
and I suppose that in them Roosevelt did more than 
any other writer to popularize the study of the his- 
torical origin and development of the vast region 
west of the Alleghanles which now forms a vital part 
of the American Republic. One attribute of a real 
historian is the power to discern the structural or 
pregnant quality of historic periods and episodes; 
and this power Roosevelt displayed in choosing 
both the War of 18 12 and the Winning of the West. 



BACK TO THE EAST 75 

In his larger history Roosevelt had a swift, ener- 
getic, and direct style. He never lacked for ideas. 
Descriptions came to him with exuberant details 
of which he selected enough to leave his reader 
with the feeling that he had looked on a vivid and 
accurate picture. Here, for instance, is a portrait 
of Daniel Boon which seems remarkably lifelike, be- 
cause I remember how difficult other writers find it 
to individualize most of the figures of the pioneers. 

The backwoodsmen, he says, " all tilled their own 
clearings, guiding the plow among the charred 
stumps left when the trees were chopped down and 
the land burned over, and they were all, as a matter 
of course, hunters. With Boon, hunting and explora- 
tion were passions, and the lonely life of the wilder- 
ness, with its bold, wild freedom, the only existence 
for which he really cared. He was a tall, spare, 
sinewy man, with eyes like an eagle's, and muscles 
that never tired; the toil and hardship of his life 
made no impress on his iron frame, unhurt by in- 
temperance of any kind, and he lived for eighty-six 
years, a backwoods hunter to the end of his days. 
His thoughtful, quiet, pleasant face, so often por- 
trayed, is familiar to every one; it was the face of 
a man who never blustered or bullied, who would 
neither inflict nor suffer any wrong, and who had a 
limitless fund of fortitude, endurance, and indomit- 



76 THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

able resolution upon which to draw when fortune 
pro^'ed adverse. His self-command and patience, 
his daring, restless love of adventure, and, in time of 
danger, his absolute trust in his own powers and re- 
sources, all combined to render him peculiarly fitted 
to follow the career of which he was so fond." ^ 

Roosevelt contributed two volumes to the Amer- 
ican Statesmen Series, one on Thomas Hart Benton 
in 1886, and the other on Gouverneur Morris in 
1887. The environment and careers of these two 
men — the Missouri Senator of the first half of the 
nineteenth century, and the New York financier of 
the last half of the eighteenth — afforded him scope 
for treating two very diverse subjects. He was him- 
self rooted in the old New York soil and he had come, 
through his life in the West, to divine the conditions 
of Benton's days. Once again, many years later 
(1900) he tried his hand at biography, taking Oliver 
Cromwell for his hero, and making a summary, 
impressionistic sketch of him. Besides the interest 
this biography has for students of Cromwell, it has 
also interest for students of Roosevelt, for it is a 
specimen of the sort of by-products he threw off 
in moments of relaxation. 

More characteristic than such excursions into 
history and biography, however, are his many books 
1 Winning of the West, i, 137, 138 (ed. 1889). 



BACK TO THE EAST 77 

describing ranch life and hunting. In the former, 
he gives you truthful descriptions of the men of the 
West as he saw them, and in the latter he recounts 
his adventures with elk and buffalo, wolves and 
bears. The mere trailing and killing of these creatures 
do not satisfy him. He studies with equal zest their 
haunts and their habits. The naturalist in him, 
which we recognized in his youth, found this vent 
in his maturity. And long years afterward, on his 
expeditions to Africa and to Brazil he dealt even 
more exuberantly with the natural history of the 
countries which he visited. 

Two other classes of writings make up Roose- 
velt's astonishing output. He gathered his essays 
and addresses into half a dozen volumes, remarkable 
alike for the wide variety of their subjects, and for 
the vigor with which he seized on each subject as if 
it was the one above all others which most absorbed 
him. Finally, skim the collection of his official mes- 
sages, as Commissioner, as Governor, or as Presi- 
dent, and you will discover that he had the gift of 
infusing life and color into the usually drab and 
cheerless wastes of official documents. 

I am not concerned to make a literary appraisal 
of Theodore Roosevelt's manifold works, but I am 
struck by the fact that our professional critics ig- 
nore him entirely in their summaries or histories of 



78 THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

recent American literature. As I re-read, after twenty 
years, and in some cases after thirty years, books 
of his which made a stir on their appearance, I am 
impressed, not only by the excellence of their writ- 
ing, but by their lasting quality. If he had not done 
so many other things of greater importance, and 
done them supremely, he would have secured lasting 
fame by his books on hunting, ranching, and ex- 
ploration. No other American compares with him, 
and I know of no other, in English at least, who has 
made a contribution in these fields equal to his. 

Throughout these eight or ten volumes he proves 
himself to be one of those rare writers who see what 
they write. As in the case of Tennyson, than whom 
no English poet, in spite of nearsightedness, has 
observed so minutely the tiniest details of form 
or the faintest nuance of color, so the lack of normal 
vision did not prevent Roosevelt from being the 
closest of observers. He was also, by the way, a good 
shot with rifle or pistol. If you read one of his chap- 
ters in "Hunting the Grizzly" and ask yourself 
wherein its animation and attraction lie, you will 
find that it is because every sentence and every line 
report things seen. He does not, like the Realist, try 
to get a specious lifelikeness by heaping up banal 
and commonplace facts; he selects. His imagina- 
tion reminds one of the traveling spark which used 



BACK TO THE EAST 79 

to run along the great chandelier in the theatre, and 
light each jet, so that its passage seemed a flight 
from point to point of brilliance. Wherever he fo- 
cuses his survey a spot glows vividly. 

The eye, the master sense of the mind, thus domi- 
nates him, and I think that we shall trace to its 
mastery much of the immediate power which he 
exerted by his writings and speeches on public, so- 
cial, and moral topics. He struck off, in the heat of 
composition or of speaking, phrases and similes 
which millions caught up eagerly and made as famil- 
iar as household words. He even remembered from 
his extensive reading some item which, when applied 
by him to the affair of the moment, acquired new 
pertinence and a second life. Thus, Bunyan's " muck- 
raker" lives again; thus, "the curse of Meroz," and 
many another Bible reference, springs up with a 
fresh meaning. 

No doubt the purist will find occasional lapses 
in taste or expression, and the quibbling peddler 
of rhetoric will gloat over some doubtful construc- 
tion; but neither purist nor peddler of rhetoric 
has ever been able in his writing to display the ease, 
the rush, the naturalness, the sparkle which were 
as genuine in Roosevelt as were the features of his 
face. On reading these pages, which have escaped 
the attention of the professional critics, I wonder 



8o THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

whether they may not have a fate similar to Defoe's; 
for Defoe also was read voraciously by his con- 
temporaries, his pamphlets made a great rustle in 
their time, and then the critics turned to other 
and spicier writers. But in due season, other critics, 
as well as the world, made the discovery that only 
a genius could have produced Defoe's "every-day," 
"commonplace" style. 

His innate vigor, often swelling into vehemence, 
marks also Roosevelt's political essays, and yet he 
had time for reflection, and if you examine closely 
even some of his combative passages, you will see 
that they do not spring from sudden anger or scorn, 
but from a conviction which has matured slowly in 
him. He had not the philosophic calm which formed 
the background of Burke's political masterpieces, 
but he had the clearness, the simplicity, by which 
he could drive home his thoughts into the minds 
of the multitude, Burke spoke and wrote for thou- 
sands and for posterity; Roosevelt addressed mil- 
lions for the moment, and let posterity do what it 
would with his burning appeals and invectives. He 
was not so absolutely self-effacing as Lincoln, but 
I think that he realized to the full the meaning of 
Lincoln's phrase, "the world will little note, nor 
long remember what we may say here," and that 
he would have made it his motto. For h^, like 



BACK TO THE EAST 8i 

all truly great statesmen, was so immensely con- 
cerned in winning today's battle, that he wasted 
no time in speculating what tomorrow, or next 
year, or next century would say about it. 

Mysticism, the recurrent fad which indicates that 
its victims neither see clear nor think straight, could 
not spread its veils over him. The man who visu- 
alizes is safe from that intellectual weakness and 
moral danger. But although Roosevelt felt the sway 
of the true emotions, he allowed only his intimates 
to know what he held most intimate and sacred. 
He felt also the charm of beauty, and over and over 
again in his descriptions of hunting and riding in 
the West, he pauses to recall beautiful scenery or 
some unusual bit of landscape; and even in remem- 
bering his passage down the River of Doubt, when 
he came nearer to death than he ever came until he 
died, in spite of tormenting pain and desperate anx- 
iety for his companions, he mentions more than once 
the loveliness of the river scene or of the massed 
foliage along its banks. Naturalist though he was, 
bent first on studying the habits of birds and ani- 
mals, he yet took keen delight in the iridescent 
plumage or graceful form or the beautiful fur of bird 
and beast. 

The quality of a writer can best be judged by read- 
ing a whole chapter, or two or three, of his book, 



82 THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

but sometimes he reveals a phase of himself in a 
single paragraph. Read, for instance, this brief ex- 
tract from Roosevelt's "Through the Brazilian 
Wilderness," if you would understand some of the 
traits which I have just alluded to. It comes at the 
end of his long and dismaying exploration of the 
River of Doubt, when the party was safe at last, 
and the terrible river was about to flow into the 
broad, lakelike Amazon, and Manaos was almost 
in sight, where civilization could be laid hold on 
again, Manaos, whence the swift ships went steaming 
towards the Atlantic and the Atlantic opened a 
clear path home. He says: 

The North was calling strongly the three men of the 
North — Rocky Dell Farm to Cherrie, Sagamore Hill to me; 
and to Kermit the call was stronger still. After nightfall we 
could now see the Dipper well above the horizon — upside 
down with the two pointers pointing to a North Star below 
the world's rim; but the Dipper, with all its stars. In our home 
country spring had now come, the wonderful Northern spring 
of long, glorious days, of brooding twilight, of cool, delightful 
nights. Robin and bluebird, meadow-lark and song-sparrow 
were singing in the mornings at home; the maple buds were 
red; windflowers and bloodroot were blooming while the 
last patches of snow still lingered ; the rapture of the hermit- 
thrush in Vermont, the serene golden melody of the wood- 
thrush on Long Island, would be heard before we were there 
to listen. Each was longing for the homely things that were 
so dear to him, for the home people who were dearer still, and 
for the one who was dearest of all.^ 

^ ^Through the Brazilian Wilderness, 320. 



CHAPTER VI 

APPLYING MORALS TO POLITICS 

I HAVE said that Roosevelt devoted the two 
years after he came back to New York to writ- 
ing, but it would be a mistake to imagine that writing 
alone busied him. He was never a man who did or 
would do only one thing at a time. His immense 
energy craved variety, and in variety he found recre- 
ation. Now that the physical Roosevelt had caught 
up in relative strength with the intellectual, he could 
take what holidays requiring exhaustless bodily 
vigor he chose. The year seldom passed now when 
he did not go West for a month or two. Bill Sewall 
and Wilmot Dow were established with their families 
on the Elkhorn Ranch, which Roosevelt continued 
to own, although, I believe, like many ranches at 
that period, it ceased to be a good investment. 
Sometimes he made a hurried dash to southern 
Texas, or to the Selkirks, or to Montana in search 
of new sorts of game. In the mountains he indulged 
in climbing, but this was not a favorite with him 
because it offered less sport in proportion to the 
fatigue. While he was still a young man he had gone 
up the Matterhorn and Mont Blanc, feats which 



84 THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

still required endurance, although they did not in- 
volve danger. 

While we think of him, therefore, as dedicating 
himself to his literary work — the "Winning of the 
West" and the accounts of ranch life — we must 
remember that he had leisure for other things. He 
watched keenly the course of politics, for instance, 
and in 1888 when the Republicans nominated Ben- 
jamin Harrison as their candidate for President, 
Roosevelt supported him effectively and took rank 
with the foremost Republican speakers of the cam- 
paign. After his election Harrison, who both recog- 
nized Roosevelt's great ability and felt under obliga- 
tion to him, wished to offer him the position of an 
under-secretary in the State Department ; but Blaine, 
who was slated for Secretary of State, had no liking 
for the young Republican whose coolness in 1884 he 
had not forgotten. So Harrison invited Roosevelt to 
be a Civil Service Commissioner. The position had 
never been conspicuous; its salary was not large; its 
duties were of the routine kind which did not greatly 
tax the energies of the Commissioners, who could 
never hope for fame, but only for the approval of 
their own consciences for whatever good work they 
did. The Machine Republicans, whether of national 
size, or of State or municipal, were glad to know that 
Roosevelt would be put out of the way in that office. 



APPLYING MORALS TO POLITICS 85 

They already thought of him as a young man dan- 
gerous to all Machines and so they felt the prudence 
of bottling him up. To make him a Civil Service 
Commissioner was not exactly so final as chloro- 
forming a snarling dog would be, but it was a strong 
measure of safety. Theodore's friends, on the other 
hand, advised him against accepting the appoint- 
ment, because, they said, it would shelve him, polit- 
ically, use up his brains which ought to be spent on 
higher work, and allow the country which was just 
beginning to know him to forget his existence. Men 
drop out of sight so quickly at Washington unless 
they can stand on some pedestal which raises them 
above the multitude. 

The Optimist of the future, to hasten whose com- 
ing we are all making the world so irresistibly attrac- 
tive, will be endowed, let us hope, with a sense of 
humor. With that, he can read history as a cosmic 
joke-book, and not as the Biography of the Devil, 
as many of us modems, besides Jean Paul, have 
found it. How long it has taken, and how much blood 
has been spilt before this or that most obvious folly 
has been abolished ! With what absurd tenacity have 
men flown in the face of reason and flouted common 
sense! So our Optimist, looking into the conditions 
which made Civil Service Reform imperative, will 
shed tears either of pity or of laughter. 



86 THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

As long ago as the time of the cave-dweller, who 
was clothed in shaggy hair instead of in broadcloth 
or silk, prehistoric man learned that the best arrow 
or spear was that tipped with the best piece of flint. 
In brief, to do good work, you must have good tools. 
Translated into the terms of today, this means that 
the expert or specialist must be preferred to the un- 
trained. In nearly all walks of life this truth was 
taken for granted, except in affairs connected with 
government and administration. A President might 
be elected, not because he was experienced in these 
matters, but because he had won a battle, or was the 
compromise candidate between two other aspirants. 
As it was with Presidents, so with the Cabinet offi- 
cers. Congressmen, and State and city officials. Fit- 
ness being ignored as a qualification to office, made 
it easy for favoritism and selfish motives to deter- 
mine the appointment of the army of employees re- 
quired in the bureaus and departments. That good 
old political freebooter, Andrew Jackson, acted on 
the maxim which his predecessors had put into 
practice: "To the victors belong the spoils." And 
since his time, more than one upright and intelligent 
theorist on government has supported the Party 
System even to the point where the enjoyment of 
the spoils by the victors seems justified. 
I The "spoils" were the salaries paid to the lower 



APPLYING MORALS TO POLITICS 87 

grade of placemen and women — salaries usually 
not very large, but often far above what those per- 
sons could earn in honest competition. As the money 
came out of the public purse, why worry? And how 
could party enthusiasm during the campaign and at 
the polls be kept up, if some of the partisans might 
not hope for tangible rewards for their services? 
Many rich men sat in Congress, and the Senate be- 
came, proverbially, a millionaires' club. But not one 
of these plutocrats conducted the private business 
which made him rich by the methods to which he 
condemned the business administration of the gov- 
ernment. He did not fill his counting-room with 
shirkers and incompetents; he did not find sinecures 
for his wife's poor relations; he did not pad his 
payroll with parasites whose characteristics were 
an itching palm and an unconquerable aversion to 
w^ork. He knew how to select the quickest, cleverest, 
most industrious assistants, and through them he 
prospered. 

That a man who had sworn to uphold and direct 
his government to the best of his ability, should have 
the conscience to treat his country as he did not 
treat himself, can be easily explained: he had no 
conscience. Fashion, like a local anaesthetic, deadens 
the sensitiveness of conscience in this or that spot; 
and the prevailing fashion under all governments, 



88 THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

autocratic or democratic, has permitted the waste 
and even the dishonest appHcation of public funds. 
These anomahes at last roused the sense of humor 
of some of our citizens, just as the injustice and 
dishonesty which the system embodied roused the 
moral sense of others; and the Reform of the Civil 
Service — a dream at first, and then a passionate 
cause which the ethical would not let sleep — came 
into being. But to the politicians of the old type, the 
men of "inflooence" and "pull," the project seemed 
silly. They ridiculed it, and they expected to make 
it ridiculous in the eyes of the American people, by 
calling it "Snivel" Service Reform. Zealots, how- 
ever, cannot be silenced by mockery. The contention 
that fitness should have something to do in the 
choice of public servants was effectively confirmed 
by the scientific departments of the government. 
The most shameless Senator would not dare to pro- 
pose his brother's widow to lead an astronomical 
expedition, or to urge the appointment of the ward 
Boss of his city as Chairman of the Coast Survey. 
So the American people perceived that there were 
cases in which the Spoils System did not apply. The 
reformers pushed ahead; Congress at last took no- 
tice, and a law was passed bringing a good many 
appointees in the Post-Office and other departments 
under the Merit System. The movement then gained 



APPLYING MORALS TO POLITICS 89 

ground slowly and the spoilsmen began to foresee 
that if it spread to the extent which seemed likely, 
it would deprive them of much of their clandestine 
and corrupting power. Senator Roscoe Conkling, one 
of the wittiest and most brazen of these, remarked, 
that when Dr. Johnson told Boswell that "patriot- 
ism is the last refuge of a scoundrel," he had not 
sounded the possibilities of "reform." 

The first administration of President Cleveland, 
who was a great, irremovable block of stubbornness 
in whatever cause he thought right, gave invaluable 
help to this one. The overturn of the Republican 
Party, after it had held power for twenty-four years, 
entailed many changes in office and in all classes of 
office-holders. Cleveland had the opportunity, there- 
fore, of applying the Merit System as far as the law 
had carried it, and his actions gave Civil Service 
Reformers much though not complete satisfaction. 
The movement was just at the turning-point when 
Roosevelt was appointed Commissioner in 1889. Un- 
der listless or timid direction it would have flagged 
and probably lost much ground ; but Roosevelt could 
never do anything listlessly and whatever he pushed 
never lost ground. 

The Civil Service Commission appointed by 
President Harrison consisted of three members, of 
whom the President was C. R. Procter, later Charles 



90 THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

Lyman, with Roosevelt and Hugh Thompson, an 
ex-Confederate soldier. I do not disparage Roose- 
velt's colleagues when I say that they were worthy 
persons who did not claim to have an urgent call to 
reform the Civil Service, or anything else. They were 
not of the stuff which leads revolts or reforms, but 
they were honest and did their duty firmly. They 
stood by Roosevelt "shoulder to shoulder," and 
Thompson's mature judgment restrained his impet- 
uosity. Roosevelt always acknowledged what he 
owed to the Southern gentleman. In a very short 
time the Commission, Congress, and the public 
learned that it was Roosevelt, the youngest member, 
just turned thirty years of age, who steered the Com- 
mission. Hostile critics would say, of course, that 
he usurped the leadership; but I think that this is in- 
accurate. It was not his conceit or ambition, it was 
destiny working through him, which made where 
he sat the head of the table. Being tremendously 
interested in this cause and incomparably abler than 
Lyman or Thompson, he naturally did most of the 
work, and his decisions shaped their common policy. 
The appeal to his sense of humor and his sense of 
justice stimulated him, and being a man who already 
saw what large consequences sometimes flow from 
small causes he must have been buoyed up by the 
thought that any of the cases which came before 
him might set a very important precedent. 



APPLYING MORALS TO POLITICS 91 

Roosevelt acted on the principle that the office- 
holder who swears to carry out a law must do this 
without hesitation or demur. If the law is good, 
enforcing it will make its goodness apparent to 
everybody; if it is bad, it will become the more 
quickly odious and need to be repealed. Roosevelt 
enforced the Civil Service Law with the utmost 
rigor. It called for the examination of candidates for 
office, and the examiners paid some heed to their 
moral fitness. Its opponents tried to stir up public 
opinion against it by circulating what purported to 
be some of its examination papers. Why, they asked, 
should a man who wished to be a letter-carrier in 
Keokuk, be required to give a list of the Presidents 
of the United States? Or what was the shortest route 
for a letter going from Bombay to Yokohama? By 
these and similar spurious questions the spoilsmen 
hoped to get rid of the reformers. But "shrewd 
slander," as Roosevelt called it, could not move 
him. 

Two specimen cases will suffice to show how he 
reduced shrewd slanderers to confusion. 

The first was Charles Henry Grosvenor, an influ- 
ential Republican Congressman from Ohio, familiarly 
known as the "Gentle Shepherd of Ohio," because 
of his efforts to raise the tariff on wool for the benefit 
of the owners of the few thousand sheep in that State. 



92 THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

A Congressional Committee was investigating the 
Civil Service Commission and Roosevelt asked that 
Grosvenor, who had attacked it, might be sum- 
moned. Grosvenor, however, did not appear, but 
when he learned that Roosevelt was going to his 
Dakota ranch for a vacation, he sent word that he 
would come. Nevertheless, this gallant act failed to 
save him, for Roosevelt canceled his ticket West, 
and confronted Grosvenor at the investigation. The 
Gentle Shepherd protested that he had never said 
that he wished to repeal the Civil Service Law; 
whereupon Roosevelt read this extract from one of 
his speeches: " I will vote not only to strike out this 
provision, but I will vote to repeal the whole law." 
When Roosevelt pointed out the inconsistency of the 
two statements, Grosvenor declared that they 
meant the same thing. 

Being caught thus by one foot in Roosevelt's man- 
trap, he quickly proceeded to be caught by the 
other. He declared that Rufus P. Putnam, one of 
the candidates in dispute, had never lived in Gros- 
venor's Congressional district, or even in Ohio. Then 
Mr. Roosevelt quoted from a letter \mtten by Gros- 
venor: "Mr. Rufus P. Putnam is a legal resident of 
my district, and has relatives Hving there now." 
With both feet caught in the man-trap, the Gentle 
Shepherd was suffering much pain, but Truth is so 



APPLYING MORALS TO POLITICS 93 
great a stranger to spoilsmen that he found diffi- 
culty in getting within speaking distance of her. 
For he protested, first, that he never wrote the letter, 
next, that he had forgotten that he wrote it, and 
finally, that he was misinformed when he wrote it. 
So far as appears, he never risked a tilt with the 
smiling young Commissioner again, but returned to 
his muttons and their fleeces. 

A still more distinguished personage fell before 
the enthusiastic Commissioner. This was Arthur 
Pue Gorman, a Senator from Maryland, a Democrat, 
one of the most pertinacious agents of the Big Inter- 
ests in the United States Congress. Evidently, also, 
he served them well, as they kept him in the Senate 
for nearly twenty-five years, until his death. They 
employed Democrats as well as Republicans, just 
as they subscribed to both Democratic and Repub- 
lican campaign funds. For, "in politics there is no 
politics." Gorman, who knew that the Spoils System 
was almost indispensable to the running of a polit- 
ical machine, waited for a chance to attack the Civil 
Service Commission. Thinking that the propitious 
moment had come, he inveighed against it in the 
Senate. He "described with moving pathos," as 
Roosevelt tells the story, "how a friend of his, 'a 
bright young man from Baltimore,' a Sunday-School 
scholar, well recommended by his pastor, wished to 



94 THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

be a letter-carrier," but the cruel examiners floored 
him by asking the shortest route from Baltimore to 
China, to which he replied that, as he never wished 
to go to China, he had n't looked up the route. Then, 
Senator Gorman asserted, the examiners quizzed 
him about all the steamship lines from the United 
States to Europe, branched off into geology and 
chemistry, and "turned him down." 

Gorman was unaware that the Commissioners 
kept records of all their examinations, and when 
Roosevelt wrote him a poUte note inquiring the 
name of the "bright young man from Baltimore," 
Gorman did not reply. Roosevelt also asked him, in 
case he shrank from giving the name of his inform- 
ant, to give the date when the alleged examination 
took place. He even offered to open the files to any 
representative the Senator chose to send. Gorman, 
however, "not hitherto known as a sensitive soul," 
as Roosevelt remarks, "expressed himself as so 
shocked at the thought that the veracity of the 
bright young man should be doubted, that he could 
not bring himself to answer my letter." Accordingly, 
Roosevelt made a public statement that the Com- 
missioners had never asked the questions which 
Gorman alleged. Gorman waited until the next ses- 
sion of Congress and then, in a speech before the 
Senate, complained that he had received a very 



APPLYING MORALS TO POLITICS 95 

*' impudent" letter from Commissioner Roosevelt 
"cruelly" calling him to account, when he was 
simply endeavoring to right a great wrong which the 
Commission had committed. But neither then nor 
afterwards did he furnish "any clue to the identity 
of that child of his fondest fancy, the bright young 
man without a name." 

Roosevelt must have chuckled with a righteous 
exultation at such evidence as this that the Lord had 
delivered the Philistines into his hands; and his 
abomination of the Spoils System must have deep- 
ened when he saw its Grosvenors and its Gormans 
brazen out the lies he caught them telling. 

When the spoilsmen failed to get rid of the Com- 
mission by ridicule and by open attack, they re- 
sorted to the trick of not appropriating money for it 
in this or that district. But this did not succeed, for 
the Commission, owing to lack of funds, held no 
examinations in those districts, and therefore no 
candidates from them could get offices. This made 
the politicians unpopular with the hungry office- 
seekers whom they deprived of their food at the 
public trough. 

The Commission had to struggle, however, not 
only to keep unfit candidates out of office, but to 
keep in office those who discharged their duty hon- 
estly and zealously. After every election there came 



96 THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

a rush of Congressmen and others, to turn out the 
tried and trusty employees and to put in their own 
appHcants. Such an overturn was of course detri- 
mental to the service; first, because it substituted 
greenhorns for trained employees, and next, because 
it introduced the haphazard of politicians' whims 
for a just scheme of promotion and retention in 
office. Roosevelt lamented bitterly over the injustice 
and he denounced the waste. Many cases of grievous 
hardship came to his notice. Widows, whose only 
means of support for themselves and their little chil- 
dren was their salary, were thrown upon the street 
in order that rapacious politicians might secure 
places for their henchmen. Roosevelt might plead, 
but the politician remained obdurate. What was the 
tragic lot of a widow and starving children compared 
with keeping promises with greedy "heelers"? 
Roosevelt saw that there was no redress except 
through the extension of the classified service. 
This he urged at all times, and ten years later, when 
he was himself President, he added more than fifty 
thousand ofiices to the list of those which the spoils- 
men could not clutch. 

He served six years as Civil Service Commissioner, 
being reappointed in 1892 by President Cleveland. 
The overturn in parties which made Cleveland 
President for the second time, enabled Roosevelt to 



APPLYING MORALS TO POLITICS 97 

watch more closely the working of the Reform Sys- 
tem and he did what he could to safeguard those 
Government employees who were Republicans from 
being ousted for the benefit of Democrats. In general, 
he believed in laying down certain principles on the 
tenure of office and in standing resolutely by them. 
Thus, in 1891, under Harrison, on being urged to 
retain General Corse, the excellent Dem.ocratic Post- 
master of Boston, he replied to his friend Curtis 
Guild that Corse ought to be continued as a matter 
of principle and not because Cleveland, several years 
before, had retained Pearson, the Republican Post- 
master of New York, as an exception. 

At the end of six years, Roosevelt felt that he had 
worked on the Commission long enough to let the 
American people understand how necessary it was 
to maintain and extend the Merit System in the 
Civil Service. A sudden access of virtue had just 
cast out the Tammany Ring in New York City and 
set up Mr. Strong, a Reformer, as Mayor. He wished 
to secure Roosevelt's help and Roosevelt was eager 
to give it. The Mayor offered him the headship of 
the Street Cleaning Department, but this he de- 
clined, not because he thought the place beneath 
him, but because he lacked the necessary scientific 
qualifications, and Mayor Strong was lucky in find- 
ing for it the best man in the country, Colonel 



98 THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

George E. Waring. Accordingly, the Mayor ap- 
pointed Roosevelt President of the Board of Police 
Commissioners, and he accepted. 

The PoHce System in New York City in 1895, 
when Roosevelt took control, was a monstrosity 
which, in almost every respect, did exactly the oppo- 
site from what the Police System is organized to do. 
Moral values had been so perverted that it took a 
strong man to hold fast to the rudimentary distinc- 
tions between Good and Evil. The Police existed, in 
theory, to protect the lives and property of respect- 
able citizens; to catch law-breakers and hand them 
over to the courts for punishment; to hunt down 
gamblers, swindlers, and all the other various crim- 
inals and purveyors of vice. In reality, the Police 
under Tammany abetted crime and protected the 
vicious. This they did, not because they had any 
special hostility to Virtue — they probably knew too 
little about it to form a dispassionate opinion any- 
way — but because Vice paid better. They held the 
cynical view that human nature will always breed a 
great many persons having a propensity to licentious 
or violent habits ; that laws were made to check and 
punish these persons, and that they might go their 
pernicious ways unmolested if the Police took no 
notice of them. So the Police established a system of 
immunity which anybody could enjoy by paying the 



APPLYING MORALS TO POLITICS 99 

price. Notorious gambling -hells "ran wide open" 
after handing the required sum to the high police 
official who extorted it. Hundreds of houses of ill- 
fame carried on their hideous traffic undisturbed, so 
long as the Police Captain of the district received 
his weekly bribe. Gangs of roughs, toughs, and gun- 
men pursued their piratical business without think- 
ing of the law, for they shared their spoils with the 
supposed officers of the law. And there were more 
degenerate miscreants still, who connived with the 
Police and went unscatlied. As if the vast sums col- 
lected from these willing bribers were not enough, 
the Police added a system of blackmail to be levied 
on those who were not deliberately vicious, but who 
sought convenience. If you walked downtown you 
found the sidewalk in front of certain stores almost 
barricaded by packing-boxes, whereas next door the 
way might be clear. This simply meant that the firm 
which wished to use the sidewalk for its private 
advantage paid the poHceman on that beat, and he 
looked the other way. As there was an ordinance 
against almost every conceivable thing, so the Police 
had a price for making every ordinance a dead letter. 
Was this a cosmic joke, a nightmare of cynicism, 
a delusion? No, New York was classed in the refer- 
ence books as a Christian city, and this was its 
Christianity. 



100 THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

Roosevelt knew the seamless bond which con- 
nected the crime and vice of the city with corrupt 
politics. The party Bosses, Republicans and Demo- 
crats alike, were the final profiters from police black- 
mail and bribery. As he held his mandate from a 
Reform Administration, he might expect to be aided 
by it on the political side; at least, he did not fear 
that the heads of the other departments would 
secretly work to block his purification of the Police. 

A swift examination showed him that the New 
York Police Department actually protected the crim- 
inals and promoted every kind of iniquity which it 
existed to put down. It was as if in a hospital which 
should cure the sick, the doctors, instead of curing 
disease, should make the sick worse and should make 
the well sick. How was Roosevelt, equally valiant 
and honest, to conquer this Hydra? He took the 
straight way dictated by common sense. First of all, 
he gained the confidence and respect of his men. He 
said afterwards, that even at its worst, when he went 
into ofiice, the majority of the Police wanted to do 
right ; that their instincts were loyal ; and this meant 
much, because they were tempted on all sides by 
vicious wrongdoers; they had constantly before them 
the example of superiors who took bribes and they 
received neither recognition nor praise for their own 
worthy deeds. 



APPLYING MORALS TO POLITICS loi 

The Force came very soon to understand that 
under Roosevelt every man would get a "square 
deal." "Pulls" had no efficacy. The Chief Commis- 
sioner personally kept track of as many men as he 
could. When he saw in the papers one morning that 
Patrolman X had saved a woman from drowning, 
he looked him up, found that the man had been 
twenty-two years in the service, had saved twenty- 
five lives, and had never been noticed, much less 
thanked, by the Commission. More than this, he 
had to buy his own uniform, and as this was often 
rendered unfit for further use when he rescued per- 
sons from drowning, or from a burning house, his 
heroism cost him much in dollars and cents. By 
Roosevelt's orders the Department henceforth paid 
for new uniforms in such cases, and It awarded med- 
als. By recognizing the good, and by weeding out as 
fast as possible the bad members of the Force, 
Roosevelt thus organized the best body of Police 
which New York City had ever seen. There were, of 
course, some black sheep among them whom he 
could not reach, but he changed the fashion, so that 
it was no longer a point of excellence to be a black 
sheep. 

Roosevelt rigorously enforced the laws, without 
regard to his personal opinion. It happened that at 
that time the good people of New York insisted that 



102 THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

liquor saloons should do no business on Sundays. 
This prohibition had long been on the statute book, 
but it had been generally evaded because the saloon- 
keepers had paid the Bosses, who controlled the 
Police Department, to let them keep open — usually 
by a side door — on Sundays. Indeed, the statute 
was evidently passed by the Bosses in order to widen 
their opportunity for blackmail; but in this they 
overreached themselves. For the liquor-sellers at 
last revolted, and they held conferences with the 
Bosses — David B. Hill was then the Democratic 
State Boss and Richard Croker the Tammany Boss 
— and they published in the Wine and Spirit Gazette, 
their organ, this statement: "An agreement was 
made between the leaders of Tammany Hall and the 
liquor-dealers, according to which the monthly 
blackmail paid to the force should be discontinued 
in return for political support." Croker and his pals, 
taking it as a matter of course that the public knew 
their methods, neither denied this incriminating 
statement nor thought it worth noticing. 

For a while all the saloons enjoyed equal Immunity 
in selling drinks on Sunday. Then cam.e Roosevelt 
and ordered his men to close every saloon. Many of 
the bar-keepers laughed incredulously at the patrol- 
man who gave the order; many others flew into a 
rage. The public denounced this attempt to strangle 



APPLYING MORALS TO POLITICS 103 

Its liberties and reviled the Police Chief as the would- 
be enforcer of obsolescent blue laws. But they could 
not frighten Roosevelt: the saloons were closed. 
Nevertheless, even he could not prevail against the 
overwhelming desire for drink. Crowds of virtuous 
citizens preferred an honest police force, but they 
preferred their beer or their whiskey still more, and 
joined with the criminal classes, the disreputables, 
and all the others who regarded any law as out- 
rageous which interfered with their personal habits. 
Accordingly, since they could not budge Roosevelt, 
they changed the law. A compliant local judge dis- 
covered that it was lawful to take what drink you 
chose with a meal, and the result was that, as Roose- 
velt describes it, a man by eating one pretzel might 
drink seventeen beers. 

Roosevelt himself visited all parts of the city and 
chiefly those where Vice grew flagrant at night. The 
journalists, who knew of his tours of inspection and 
were always on the alert for the picturesque, likened 
him to the great Caliph who in similar fashion inves- 
tigated Baghdad, and they nicknamed him Haroun 
al Roosevelt. He had for his companion Jacob Riis, 
a remarkable Dane who migrated to this country in 
youth, got the position of reporter on one of the 
New York dailies, frequented the courts, studied 
the condition of the abject poor in the tenement- 



104 THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

houses, and the haunts where Vice breeds Hke scum 
on stagnant pools, and wrote a book, "How the 
Other Half Lives," which startled the consciences of 
the well-to-do and the virtuous. Riis showed Roose- 
velt everything. Police headquarters were in Mul- 
berry Street, and yet within a stone's throw iniquity 
flourished. He guided him through the Tenderloin 
District, and the wharves, and so they made the 
rounds of the vast city. More than once Roosevelt 
surprised a shirking patrolman on his beat, but his 
purpose they all knew was to see justice done, and to 
keep the officers of the Force up to the highest stand- 
ard of duty. 

One other anecdote concerning his experience as 
Police Commissioner I repeat, because it shows by 
what happy touches of humor he sometimes dis- 
persed menacing clouds. A German Jew-baiter, 
Rector Ahlwardt, came over from Berlin to preach 
a crusade against the Jews. Great trepidation spread 
through the Jewish colony and they asked Roosevelt 
to forbid Ahlwardt from holding public meetings 
against them. This, he saw, would make a martyr of 
the German persecutor and probably harm the Jews 
more than it would help them. So Roosevelt be- 
thought him of a device which worked perfectly. He 
summoned forty of the best Jewish policemen on the 
Force and ordered them to preserve order in the hall 



APPLYING MORALS TO POLITICS 105 

and prevent Ahlwardt from being interrupted or 
abused. The meeting passed off without disturbance; 
Ahlwardt stormed in vain against the Jews; the audi- 
ence and the pubHc saw the humor of the affair and 
Jew-baiting gained no foothold in New York City. 

Although Roosevelt thoroughly enjoyed his work 
as Police Commissioner, he felt rightly that it did 
not afford him the freest scope to exercise his pow- 
ers. Much as he valued executive work, the putting 
into practice and carrying out of laws, he felt more 
and more strongly the desire to make them, and his 
instinct told him that he was fitted for this higher 
task. When, therefore, the newly elected Republican 
President, William McKinley, offered him the ap- 
parently modest position of Assistant Secretary of 
the Navy, he accepted it. 

There was general grieving in New York City — • 
except among the criminals and Tammany — at the 
news of his resignation. All sorts of persons ex- 
pressed regrets that were really sincere, and their 
gratitude for the good which he had done for them 
all. Some of them protested that he ought not to 
abandon the duty which he had discharged so val- 
iantly. One of these was Edwin L. Godkin, editor of 
The Nation and the New York Evening Post, a critic 
who seldom spoke politely of anything except ideals 
which had not been attained, or commended per- 



io6 THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

sons who were not dead and so beyond reach of 
praise. Since Roosevelt himself has quoted this pas- 
sage from Godkin's letter to him, I think it ought to 
be reprinted here: " I have a concern, as the Quakers 
say, to put on record my earnest belief that in New 
York you are doing the greatest work of which any 
American today is capable, and exhibiting to the 
young men of the country the spectacle of a very 
important office administered by a man of high 
character in the most efficient way amid a thousand 
difficulties. As a lesson in politics I cannot think of 
anything more instructive." 

Godkin was a great power for good, in spite of the 
obvious unpopularity which an incessant critic can- 
not fail to draw down upon himself. The most pessi- 
mistic of us secretly crave a little respite when for 
half an hour we may forget the circumambient and 
all-pervading gloom: music, or an entertaining book, 
or a dear friend lifts the burden from us. And then 
comes our uncompromising pessimist and chides us 
for our softness and for letting ourselves be led 
astray from our pessimism. His Jeremiads are prob- 
ably justified, and as the historian looks back he 
finds that they give the truest statement of the past; 
for the present must be very bad, indeed, if it does 
not discover conditions still worse in the past from 
which it has emerged. But Godkin living could not 



APPLYING MORALS TO POLITICS 107 

escape from two sorts of unsympathetic depre- 
dators: first, the wicked who smarted under his 
just scourge, and next, the upright, who tired of 
unremittent censure, although they admitted that it 
was just. 

Roosevelt came, quite naturally, to set the doer 
above the critic, who, he thought, quickly degener- 
ated into a fault-finder and from that into a common 
scold. When a man plunges into a river to save some- 
body from drowning, if you do not plunge in your- 
self, at least do not jeer at him for his method of 
swimming. So Roosevelt, w^ho shrank from no bod- 
ily or moral risk himself, held in scorn the "timid 
good," the "acidly cantankerous," the peace-at-any- 
price people, and the entire tribe of those who, in- 
stead of attacking iniquities and abuses, attacked 
those who are desperately engaged in fighting these. 
For this reason he probably failed to absorb from 
Godkin's criticism some of the benefit which it 
might have brought him. The pills were bitter, but 
salutary. While he was Police Commissioner one of 
Joseph Choate's epigrams passed current and is still 
worth recalling. When some one remarked that New 
York was a very wicked city, Choate replied, "How 
can you expect it to be otherwise, when Dana makes 
Vice so attractive in the Sun every morning, and 
Godkin makes Virtue so odious in the Post every 



io8 THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

afternoon?" Charles A. Dana, the editor of the Sun, 
the stanch supporter of Tammany Hall, and the 
apologist of almost every evil movement for nearly 
thirty years, was a writer of diabolical cleverness 
whose newspaper competed with Godkin's among 
the intellectual readers in search of amusement. At 
one time, when Godkin had been particularly caus- 
tic, and the Mugwumps at Harvard were unusually 
critical, Roosevelt attended a committee meeting at 
the University. After talking with President Eliot, 
he went and sat by a professor, and remarked, play- 
fully, " Eliot is really a good fellow at heart. Do you 
suppose that, if he bit Godkin, it would take?" 

So Roosevelt went back to Washington to be 
henceforth, as it proved, a national figure whose 
career was to be forever embedded in the structural 
growth of the United States. 

Note. — In order to understand Roosevelt's achievement 
as Police Commissioner of New York City, the reader should 
remember that the work of Reform began with the organiza- 
tion, in 1892, of the Society for the Prevention of Crime. 
The Reverend Dr. Charles H. Parkhurst was President of 
this, and it fearlessly attacked Tammany and its network 
of corruption in all departments, and so aroused the moral 
sense of the citizens that they elected the Reform Administra- 
tion with William B. Strong as Mayor, in November, 1894. 
Strong's appointment of Roosevelt as head of the Police 
gave to the Reformers a leader capable of using the physical 
force of the Police Department to put down iniquity. 



w 



CHAPTER VII 

THE ROUGH RIDER 

HEN Roosevelt returned to Washington In 
March, 1897, to take up his duties as a subor- 
dinate officer In the National Government, he was 
thirty-eight years old; a man In the prime of life, 
with the strength of an ox, but quick In movement, 
and tough In endurance. A rapid thinker, his intel- 
lect seemed as impervious to fatigue as was his en- 
ergy. Along with this physical and Intellectual make- 
up went courage of both kinds, passion for justice, 
and a buoying sense of obligation towards his fel- 
lows and the State. His career thus far had prepared 
him for the highest service. Born and brought up 
amid what our society classifiers, with their sure 
democratic Instincts, loved to call the "aristo- 
cratic" circle In New York, his three years In the 
Assembly at Albany Introduced him to the motley 
group of Representatives of high and low, bank 
presidents and farmers, blacklegs and philanthro- 
pists, who gathered there to make the laws for New 
York State. There he displayed the preference, char- 
acteristic of him through life, of choosing his in- 
timates Irrespective of their occupation or sodai 



no THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

label. Then he went out on the Plains and learned 
to live with wild men, for whom the artificial distinc- 
tions of civilization had no meaning. He adapted 
himself to a primeval standard in which courage and 
a rough sense of honor were the chief virtues. But 
this experience did still more for him than prove his 
personal power of getting along with such lower 
types of men, for it revealed to him the human ex- 
tremes of the American Nation. How vast it was, 
how varied, how intricate, and, potentially, how 
sublime! Lincoln, coming out of the Kentucky back- 
woods, first to Springfield, Illinois, then to Chicago 
in its youth, and finally to Washington, similarly 
passed in review the American contrasts of his time. 
More specific was Roosevelt's training as a Civil 
Service Commissioner. The public had been ap- 
plauding him as a youthful prodigy, as a fellow of 
high spirit, of undisputed valor, of brilliant flashes, 
of versatility, but the worldly-wise, who have been 
too often fooled, were haunted by the suspicion that 
perhaps this astonishing young man would turn out 
to be only a meteor after all. His six years of routine 
work on the Civil Service Commission put this anxi- 
ety to rest. That work could not be carried on suc- 
cessfully by a man of moods and spurts, but only 
by a man of solid moral basis, who could not be 
disheartened by opposition or deflected by threats 



THE ROUGH RIDER in 

or by temptations, and, as I have before suggested, 
the people began to accustom itself to the fact that 
whatever position Roosevelt filled was conspicuous 
precisely because he filled it. A good while was still 
to elapse before we understood that notoriety was 
inseparable from him, and did not need to be ex- 
plained by the theory that he was constantly setting 
traps for self-advertisement. 

As Police Commissioner of New York City he con- 
tinued his familiar methods, and deepened the im- 
pression he had created. He carried boldness to the 
point of audacity and glorified the "square deal." 
Whatever he undertook, he drove through with the 
remorselessness of a zealot. He made no pretense of 
treating humbugs and shams as if they were honest 
and real; and when he found that the laws which 
were made to punish criminals, were used to protect 
them, no scruple prevented him from achieving the 
spirit of the law, although he might disregard its 
perverted letter. 

Ponder this striking example. The City of New 
York forbade the sale of liquor to minors. But this 
ordinance was so completely unobserved that a 
large proportion of the common drunks brought be- 
fore the Police Court were lads and even young girls, 
to whom the bar-tenders sold with impunity. The 
children, often the little children of depraved par- 



112 THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

ents, "rushed the growler"; factory hands sent the 
boys out regularly to fetch their bottle or bucket of 
drink from the saloons. Everybody knew of these 
breaches of the law, but the framers of the law had 
taken care to make it very difficult to procure legal 
evidence of those breaches. The public conscience 
was pricked a little when the newspapers told it that 
one of the youths sent for liquor had drunk so much 
of it that he fell into a stupor, took refuge in an old 
building, and that there the rats had eaten him alive. 
Whether it was before or after this horror that Chief 
Commissioner Roosevelt decided to take the law 
into his own hands, I do not know, but what he did 
was swift. The Police engaged one of the minors, who 
had been in the habit of going to the saloons, to go 
for another supply, and then to testify. This sum- 
mary proceeding scared the rum-dealers and, no 
doubt, they guarded against being caught again. 
But the victims of moral dry rot held up their hands 
in rebuke and one of the city Judges wept meta- 
phorical tears of chagrin that the Police should en- 
gage in the awful crime of enticing a youth to com- 
mit crime. The record does not show that this Judge, 
or any other, had ever done anything to check the 
practice of selling liquor to minors, a practice which 
inevitably led thousands of the youth of New York 
City to become drunkards. 



THE ROUGH RIDER 113 

How do you judge Roosevelt's act? Do you admit 
that a little wrong may ever be done in order to se- 
cure a great right? Roosevelt held, in such cases, that 
the wrong is only technical, or a blind set up by the 
wicked to shield themselves. The danger of allowing 
each person to play with the law, as with a toy, is 
evident. That way lies Jesuitry; but each infringe- 
ment must be judged on its own merits, and as 
Roosevelt followed more and more these short cuts 
to justice he needed to be more closely scrutinized. 
Was his real object to attain justice or his own 
desires? 

The Roosevelts moved back to Washington in 
March, 1897, and Theodore at once went to work in 
the office of the Assistant Secretary of the Navy in 
that amazing building which John Hay called ** Mul- 
lett's masterpiece, " where the Navy, War, and State 
Departments found shelter under one roof. The Sec- 
retary of the Navy was John D. Long, of Massachu- 
setts, who had been a Congressman and Governor, 
was a man of cultivation and geniality, and a lawyer 
of high reputation. Although sixty years old, he was 
believed never to have made an enemy either in 
politics or at the Bar. Those who knew the two 
gentlemen wondered whether the somewhat leis- 
urely and conservative Secretary could leash in his 
restless young First Assistant, with his Titanic en- 



114 THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

ergy and his head full of projects. No one believed 
that even Roosevelt could startle Governor Long 
out of his habitual urbanity, but every one could 
foresee that they might so clash in policy that either 
the head or the assistant would have to retire. 

Nothing is waste that touches the man of genius. 
So the two years which Roosevelt spent in writing, 
fifteen years before, the "History of the Naval War 
of 1812," now served him to good purpose; for it 
gave him much information about the past of the 
United States Navy and it quickened his interest in 
the problems of the Navy as it should be at that 
time. The close of the Civil War in 1865 left the 
United States with a formidable fleet, which during 
the next quarter of a century deteriorated until it 
comprised only a collection of rotting and unservice- 
able ships. Then came a reaction, followed by the 
construction of an up-to-date fleet, and by the recog- 
nition by Congress that the United States must pur- 
sue a modern policy in naval affairs. Roosevelt had 
always felt the danger to the United States of main- 
taining a despicable or an inadequate Navy, and 
from the moment he entered the Department he set 
about pushing the construction of the unfinished 
vessels and of improving the quality of the personnel. 

He was impelled to do this, not merely by his 
instinct to bring whatever he undertook up to the 



THE ROUGH RIDER 115 

highest standard, but also because he had a premo- 
nition that a crisis was at hand which might call the 
country at an instant's notice to protect itself with 
all the power it had. Two recent events aroused his 
vigilance. In December, 1895, President Cleveland 
sent to England a message upholding the Monroe 
Doctrine and warning the British that they must 
arbitrate their dispute with Venezuela over a boun- 
dary, or fight. This sledgehammer blow at England's 
pride might well have caused war had not sober 
patriots on both sides of the Atlantic, aghast at this 
shocking possibility, smoothed the way to an under- 
standing, and had not the British Government itself 
acknowledged the rightness of the demand for arbi- 
tration. So the danger vanished, but Roosevelt, and 
every other thoughtful American, said to himself, 
"Suppose England had taken up the challenge, what 
had we to defend ourselves with?" And we com- 
pared the long roll of the great British Fleet with the 
paltry list of our own ships, and realized that we 
should have been helpless. 

The other fact which impressed Roosevelt was the 
insurrection in Cuba which kept that island in per- 
petual disorder. The cruel means, especially recon- 
centration and starvation, by which the Spaniards 
tried to put down the Cubans stirred the sympathy 
of the Americans, and the number of those who be- 



Ii6 THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

lieved that the United States ought to interfere in 
behalf of humanity grew from month to month. A 
spark might kindle an explosion. Obviously, there- 
fore, the United States must have a Navy equipped 
and ready for any emergency in the Caribbean. 

During his first year in office, Assistant Secretary 
Roosevelt busied himself with all the details of 
preparation; he encouraged the enthusiasm of the 
officers of the New Navy, for he shared their hopes; 
he added, wherever he could, to its efficiency, as 
when by securing from Congress an appropriation 
of nearly a million dollars — which seemed then 
enormous — for target practice. He promoted a spirit 
of alertness — and all the while he watched the hori- 
zon towards Cuba where the signs grew angrier and 
angrier. 

But the young Secretary had to act with circum- 
spection. In the first place the policy of the Depart- 
ment was formulated by Secretary Long. In the next 
place the Navy could not come into action until 
President McKinley and the Department of State 
gave the word. The President, desiring to keep the 
peace up to the very end, would not countenance 
any move which might seem to the Spaniards either 
a threat or an insult. As the open speeding-up of 
naval preparations would be construed as both, 
nothing must be done to excite alarm. In the autumn 



THE ROUGH RIDER 117 

of 1897, however, some of the Spaniards at Havana 
treated the American residents there with so much 
sudiness that the American Government took the 
precaution to send a battleship to the Havana Har- 
bor as a warning to the menacing Spaniards, and as 
a protection, in case of outbreak, to American citi- 
zens and their property. 

But what was meant for a precaution proved to be 
the immediate cause of war. Early in the evening of 
February 15, 1898, the battleship Maine, peaceably 
riding at her moorings in the harbor, was blown up. 
Two officers and 264 enlisted men were killed by the 
explosion and in the sinking of the ship. Nearly as 
many more, with Captain Charles D. Sigsbee, the 
commander, were rescued. The next morning the 
newspapers carried the report to all parts of the 
United States, and, indeed, to the whole world. A 
tidal wave of anger surged over this country. "That 
means war!" was the common utterance. Some of 
us, who abhorred the thought of war, urged that 
at least we wait until the guilt could be fixed. The 
reports of the catastrophe conflicted. Was the ship 
destroyed by the explosion of shells in its own maga- 
zine, or was it blown up from outside? If the latter, 
who set off the mine? The Spaniards? It seemed un- 
likely, if they wished war, that they should resort to 
so clumsy a provocation! Might not the insurgents 



Ii8 THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

themselves have done it, in order to force the United 
States to interfere? While the country waited, the 
anger grew. At Washington, nobody denied that war 
was coming. All that our diplomacy attempted to do 
was to stave off the actual declaration long enough 
to give time for our naval and military preparation. 

I doubt whether Roosevelt ever worked with 
greater relish than during the weeks succeeding the 
blowing-up of the Maine. At last he had his oppor- 
tunity, which he improved night and day. The Navy 
Department arranged in hot haste to victual the 
ships; to provide them with stores of coal and ammu- 
nition; to bring the crews up to their full quota by 
enlisting; to lay out a plan of campaign; to see to 
the naval bases and the lines of communication ; and 
to cooperate with the War Department in making 
ready the land fortifications along the shore. Of 
course all these labors did not fall on Roosevelt's 
shoulders alone, but being a tireless and willing 
worker he had more than one man's share in the 
preparations. 

But the great fact that war was coming — war, 
the test — delighted him, and his sense of humor 
was not allowed to sleep. For the peace-at-any-price 
folk, the denouncers of the Navy and the Army, the 
preachers of the doctrine that as all men are good it 
was wicked to build defenses as if we suspected the 



THE ROUGH RIDER 119 

goodness of our neighbors, now rushed to the Govern- 
ment for protection. A certain lady of importance, 
who had a seaside villa, begged that a battleship 
should be anchored just outside of it. Seaboard 
cities frantically demanded that adequate protection 
should be sent to them. The spokesman for one of 
these cities happened to be a politician of such im- 
portance that President McKInley told the Assistant 
Secretary that his request must be granted. Accord- 
ingly, Roosevelt put one of the old monitors in com- 
mission, and had a tug tow it, at the imminent risk 
of its crew, to the harbor which it was to guard, and 
there the water-logged old craft stayed, to the relief 
of the inhabitants of the city and the self-satisfaction 
of the Congressman who was able to give them so 
shining a proof of his power with the Administration. 
Many frightened Bostonians transferred their secu- 
rities to the bank vaults of Worcester, and they, too, 
clamored for naval watch and ward. Roosevelt must 
have been made unusually merry by such tidings 
from Boston, the city which he regarded as particu- 
larly prolific in "the men who formed the lunatit: 
fringe in all reform movements." 

It did not astonish him that the financiers and the 
business men, who were amassing great fortunes in 
peace, should frown on war, which interrupted their 
fortune-making; but he laughed when he remem- 



120 THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

bered what they and many other vague pacifists had 
been solemnly proclaiming. There was the Senator, 
for instance, who had denied that we needed a Navy, 
because, if the emergency came, he said, we could 
improvise one, and "build a battleship in every 
creek." There were also the spread-eagle Americans, 
the swaggerers and braggarts, who amused them- 
selves in tail-twisting and insulting other nations so 
long as they could do this with impunity; but now 
they were brought to book, and their fears magnified 
the possible danger they might run from the inva- 
sion of irate Spaniards. Their imagination pictured 
to them the poor old Spanish warship Viscaya, as 
having as great possibility for destruction as the 
entire British Fleet itself. 

At all these things Roosevelt laughed to himself, 
because they confirmed the gospel of military and 
naval preparedness, which he had been preaching 
for years, the gospel which these very opponents 
reviled him for; but instead of contenting himself 
by saying to them, "I told you so," he pushed on 
preparations for war at full speed, determined to 
make the utmost of the existing resources. The Navy 
had clearly two tasks before it. It must blockade 
Cuba, which entailed the patrol of the Caribbean Sea 
and the protection of the Atlantic ports, and it must 
prevent the Spanish Fleet, known to be at the 



THE ROUGH RIDER 121 

Philippines, from crossing the Pacific Ocean, harass- 
ing our commerce, and threatening our harbors on 
our Western coast. Through Roosevelt's instrumen- 
tality, Commodore George Dewey had been ap- 
pointed in the preceding autumn to command our 
Asiatic Squadron, and while, In the absence of Gov- 
ernor Long, Roosevelt was Acting-Secretary, he sent 
the following dispatch: 

Washington, February 25, '98. 
Dewey, Hong Kong: 

Order the squadron, except the Monocacy, to Hong Kong. 
Keep full of coal. In the event of declaration of war Spain, 
your duty will be to see that the Spanish squadron does not 
leave the Asiatic coast, and then offensive operations in 
Philippine Islands. Keep Olympia until further orders. 

Roosevelt 

I would not give the impression that Roosevelt 
was the dictator of the Navy Department, or that 
all, or most, of its notable achievements came from 
his suggestion, but the plain fact is, wherever you 
look at Its most active and fruitful preparations for 
war, you find him vigorously assisting. The order 
he sent Commodore Dewey led directly to the chief 
naval event of the war, the destruction of the Span- 
ish Fleet by our Asiatic Squadron In Manila Bay, on 
May 1st. Long before this victory came to pass, how- 
ever, Roosevelt had resigned from the Navy Depart- 
ment and was seeking an ampler outlet for his 
energy. 



122 THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

Having accomplished his duty as Assistant Secre- 
tary — a post which he felt was primarily for a 
civilian — he thought that he had a right to retire 
from it, and to gratify his long-cherished desire to 
take part in the actual warfare. He did not wish, he 
said, to have to give some excuse to his children for 
not having fought in the war. As he had insisted that 
we ought to free Cuba from Spanish tyranny and 
cruelty, he could not consistently refuse to join ac- 
tively in the liberation. A man who teaches the duty 
of fighting should pay with his body when the fight- 
ing comes. 

General Alger, the Secretary of War, had a great 
liking for Roosevelt, offered him a commission in the 
Army, and even the command of a regiment. This 
he prudently declined, having no technical military 
knowledge. He proposed instead, that Dr. Leonard 
Wood should be made Colonel, and that he should 
serve under Wood as Lieutenant-Colonel. By pro- 
fession. Wood was a physician, who had graduated 
at the Harvard Medical School, and then had been 
a contract surgeon with the American Army on the 
plains. In this service he went through the roughest 
kind of campaigning and, being ambitious, and hav- 
ing an instinct for military science, he studied the 
manuals and learned from them and through actual 
practice the principles of war. In this way he became 



THE ROUGH RIDER 123 

competent to lead troops. He was about two years 
younger than Roosevelt, with an iron frame, great 
tenacity and endurance, a man of few words, but of 
clear sight and quick decision. 

While Roosevelt finished his business at the Navy 
Department, Colonel Wood hurried to San Antonio, 
Texas, the rendezvous of the First Regiment of 
Volunteer Cavalry. A call for volunteers, issued by 
Roosevelt and endorsed by Secretary Alger, spread 
through the West and Southwest, and it met with a 
quick response. Not even in Garibaldi's famous 
Thousand was such a strange crowd gathered. It 
comprised cow-punchers, ranchmen, hunters, pro- 
fessional gamblers and rascals of the Border, sports- 
men, mingled with the society sports, former foot- 
ball players and oarsmen, polo-players and lovers of 
adventure from the great Eastern cities. They all 
had one quality in common — courage — and they 
were all bound together by one common bond, devo- 
tion to Theodore Roosevelt. Nearly every one of 
them knew him personally; some of the Western 
men had hunted or ranched with him; some of the 
Eastern had been with him in college, or had had 
contact with him in one of the many vicissitudes of 
his career. It was a remarkable spectacle, this flock- 
ing to a man not yet forty years old, whose chief 
work up to that time had been in the supposed com- 



124 THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

monplace position of a Civil Service Commissioner 
and of a New York Police Commissioner ! But Roose- 
velt's name was already known throughout the 
country: it excited great admiration in many, grave 
doubts in many, and curiosity in all. 

His friends urged him not to go. It seemed to some 
of us almost wantonly reckless that he should put 
his life, which had been so valuable and evidently 
held the promise of still higher achievement, at the 
risk of a Spanish bullet, or of yellow fever in Cuba, 
for the sake of a cause which did not concern the 
safety of his country. But he never considered risks 
or chances. He felt it as a duty that we must free 
Cuba, and that every one who recognized this duty 
should do his share in performing it. No doubt the 
excitement and the noble side of our war attracted 
him. No doubt, also, that he remembered that the 
reputation of a successful soldier had often proved a 
ladder to political promotion in our Republic. Every 
reader of our history, though he were the dullest, 
understood that. But that was not the chief reason, 
or even an important one, in shaping his decision. 

He went to San Antonio in May, and worked 
without respite in learning the rudiments of war and 
in teaching them to his motley volunteers, who were 
already called by the public, and will be known in his- 
tory, as the " Rough Riders." He felt relieved when 



THE ROUGH RIDER 125 

"Teddy's Terrors," one of the nicknames proposed, 
did not stick to them. At the end of the month the 
regiment proceeded to Tampa, Florida, whence part 
of it sailed for Cuba on the transport Yucatan. It 
sufficiently indicates the state of chaos which then 
reigned in our Army preparations, that half the regi- 
ment and all the horses and mules were left behind. 
Arrived in Cuba, the first troops, accustomed only 
to the saddle, had to hobble along as best they could, 
on foot, so that some wag rechristened them "Wood's 
Weary Walkers." The rest of the regiment, with the 
mounts, came a little later, and at Las Guasimas 
they had their first skirmish with the Spaniards. 
Eight of them were killed, and they were buried in 
one grave. Afterward, in writing the history of the 
Rough Riders, Roosevelt said: "There could be no 
more honorable burial than that of these men in a 
common grave — Indian and cowboy, miner, packer, 
and college athlete — the man of unknown ancestry 
from the lonely Western plains, and the man who 
carried on his watch the crests of the Stuyvesants 
and the Fishes, one in the way they had met death, 
just as during life they had been one in their daring 
and their loyalty." ^ 

I shall not attempt to follow in detail the story of 
the Rough Riders, but shall touch only on those 
^ The Rough Riders, 120. 



126 THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

matters which refer to Roosevelt himself. Wood, 
having been promoted to Brigadier-General, in com- 
mand of a larger unit, Theodore became Colonel of 
the regiment. On July I and 2 he commanded the 
Rough Riders in their attack on and capture of San 
Juan Hill, in connection with some colored troops. 
In this engagement, their nearest approach to a 
battle, the Rough Riders, who had less than five hun- 
dred men in action, lost eighty-nine in killed and 
wounded. Then followed a dreary life in the trenches 
until Santiago surrendered; and then a still more 
terrible experience while they waited for Spain to 
give up the war. Under a killing tropical sun, receiv- 
ing irregular and often damaged food, without tent 
or other protection from the heat or from the rain, 
the Rough Riders endured for weeks the ravages of 
fever, climate, and privation. To realize that their 
sufferings were directly owing to the blunders and 
incompetence of the War Department at home, 
brought no consolation, for the soldiers could see no 
reason w^hy the Department should not go on blun- 
dering indefinitely. One of the Rough Riders told me 
that, when stricken with fever, he lay for days on 
the beach, and that anchored within the distance a 
tennis-ball could be thrown was a steamer loaded 
with medicines, but that no orders were given to 
bring them ashore I 



THE ROUGH RIDER 127 

The Rough Riders were hard hit by disease, but 
not harder than the other regiments in the Army. 
Every one of their officers, except the Colonel and 
another, had yellow fever, and at one time more 
than half of the regiment was sick. A terrible depres- 
sion weighed them down. They almost despaired, 
not only of being relieved, but of living. To face the 
entire Spanish Army would have been a great joy, 
compared with this sinking, melting away, against 
the invisible fever. 

The Administration at Washington, however, al- 
though it knew the condition of the Army in Cuba, 
seemed indifferent rather than anxious, and talked 
about moving the troops into the interior, to the 
high ground round San Luis. Thereupon, Roosevelt 
wrote to General Shafter, his commanding officer: 

To keep us here, in the opinion of every officer commanding 
a division or a brigade, will simply involve the destruction of 
thousands. There is no possible reason for not shipping prac- 
tically the entire command North at once. . . . 

All of us are certain, as soon as the authorities at Washing- 
ton fully appreciate the conditions of the army, to be sent 
home. If we are kept here it will in all human probability 
mean an appalling disaster, for the surgeons here estimate 
that over half the army, if kept here during the sickly season, 
will die. 

This is not only terrible from the standpoint of the indi- 
vidual lives lost, but it means ruin from the standpoint of 
military efficiency of the flower of the American Army, for 
the great bulk of the regulars are herewith you. The sick-list, 



128 THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

large though it is, exceeding four thousand, affords but a 
faint index of the debilitation of the army. Not ten per cent 
are fit for active work. 

This letter General Shafter really desired to have 
written, but when Roosevelt handed it to him, he hes- 
itated to receive it. Still Roosevelt persisted, left it in 
the General's hands, and the General gave it to the 
correspondent of the Associated Press who was pres- 
ent. A few hours later it had been telegraphed to the 
United States. Shafter called a council of war of the 
division and brigade commanders, which he invited 
Roosevelt to attend, although his rank as Colonel did 
not entitle him to take part. When the Generals heard 
that the Army was to be kept in Cuba all summer 
and sent up into the hills, they agreed that Roose- 
velt's protest must be supported, and they drew up 
the famous " Round Robin" in which they repeated 
Roosevelt's warnings. Neither President McKinley 
nor the War Department could be deaf to such a 
statement as this: "This army must be moved at 
once or perish. As the army can be safely moved 
now, the persons responsible for preventing such a 
move will be responsible for the unnecessary loss of 
many thousands of lives." 

This letter also was immediately published at 
home, and outcries of horror and indignation went 
up. A few sticklers for military etiquette professed 



THE ROUGH RIDER 129 

to be astonished that any officer should be guilty of 
the insubordination which these letters implied, and, 
of course, the blame fell on Roosevelt. The truth is 
that Shafter, dismayed at the condition of the Fifth 
Army, and at his own inability to make the Govern- 
ment understand the frightful doom which was im- 
pending, deliberately chose Roosevelt to commit the 
insubordination; for, as he was a volunteer officer, 
soon to be discharged, the act could not harm his 
future, whereas the regular officers were not likely to 
be popular with the War Department after they had 
called the attention of the world to its maleficent in- 
competence. 

Washington heard the shot fired by the Colonel of 
the Rough Riders, and without loss of time orderea 
the Army home. The sick were transported by thou- 
sands to Montauk Point, at the eastern end of Long 
Island, where, in spite of the best medical care which 
could be improvised, large numbers of them died. 
But the Army knew, and the American public knew, 
that Roosevelt, by his "insubordination," had saved 
multitudes of lives. At Montauk Point he was the 
most popular man in America. 

This concluded Roosevelt's career as a soldier. The 
experience introduced to the public those virile qual- 
ities of his with which his friends were familiar. He 
had not endured the hardships of ranching and hunt- 



130 THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

ing in vain. If life on the Plains democratized him, life 
with the Rough Riders did also; indeed, without the 
former there would have been no Rough Riders and 
no Colonel Roosevelt. He learned not only how to 
lead a regiment according to the tactics of that day, 
but also — and this was far more important — he 
learned how disasters and the waste of lives, and 
treasure, and the ignominy of a disgracefully man- 
aged campaign, sprang directly from unpreparedness. 
This burned indelibly into his memory. It stimulated 
all his subsequent appeals to make the Army and 
Navy large enough for any probable sudden demand 
upon them. "America the Unready " had won the war 
against a decrepit, impoverished, third-rate power, 
but had paid for her victory hundreds of millions of 
dollars and tens of thousands of lives; what would 
the count have mounted to had she been pitted 
against a really formidable foe? Would she have won 
at all against any enemy fully prepared and of nearly 
equal strength? Many of us dismissed Roosevelt's 
warnings then as the outpourings of a Jingo, of one 
who loved war for war's sake, and wished to graft 
onto the peaceful traditions and standards of our 
Republic the militarism of Europe. We misjudged 
him. 



CHAPTER VIII 

GOVERNOR OF NEW YORK — VICE-PRESIDENT 

WHILE Roosevelt was at Montauk Point wait- 
ing with his regiment to be mustered out, and 
cheering up the sick soldiers, he had direct proof 
that every war breeds a President. For the politi- 
cians went down to call on him and, although they 
did not propose that he should be a candidate for 
the Presidency — that was not a Presidential year — ■ 
they looked him over to see how he would do for 
Governor of New York. Since Cleveland set the 
fashion in 1882, the New York governorship was 
regarded as the easiest stepping-stone to the Presi- 
dency. Roosevelt's popularity was so great that if 
the matter had been left in the hands of the people, 
he would have been nominated with a rush ; but the 
Empire State was dominated by Bosses — Senator 
David B. Hill, the Democratic State Boss, Senator 
Thomas C. Piatt, the Republican State Boss, and 
Richard Croker, Boss of Tammany, — who had in- 
timate relations with the wicked of both parties, and 
of ten'decided an election by throwing their votes or 
withholding them. 

Senator Piatt enjoyed, with Senator Quay of Penn- 



132 THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

sylvania, the evil reputation of being the most un- 
scrupulous Boss in the United States. I do not under- 
take to say whether the palm should go to him or to 
Quay, but no one disputes that Piatt held New York 
State in his hand, or that Quay held Pennsylvania in 
his. By the year 1898, both were recognized as repre- 
senting a type of Boss that was becoming extinct. 
The business-man type, of which Senator Aldrich was 
a perfect exponent, was pushing to the front. Quay, 
greedy of money, had never made a pretense of show- 
ing even a conventional respect for the Eighth Com- 
mandment; Piatt, on the other hand, seems not to 
have enriched himself by his political deals, but to 
have taken his pay in the gratification he enjoyed 
from wielding autocratic power. Piatt also betrayed 
that he dated from the last generation by his re- 
ligiosity. He used his piety as an elephant uses his 
proboscis, to reach about and secure desired objects, 
large or small, the trunk of a tree or a bag of peanuts. 
He was a Sunday-School teacher and, I believe, a 
deacon of his church. Roosevelt says that he occa- 
sionally interlarded his political talk with theological 
discussion, but that his very dry theology was wholly 
divorced from moral Implications. The wonderful 
chapter on "The New York Governorship," In 
Roosevelt's "Autobiography," ought to be read by 
every American, because It gives the most remarka- 



GOVERNOR OF NEW YORK 133 

ble account of the actual working of the political 
Machine in a great American State, the disguises 
that Machine wore, its absolute unscrupulousness, 
its wickedness, its purpose to destroy the ideals of 
democracy. And Roosevelt's analysis of Piatt may 
stand alongside of Machiavelli's portraits of the 
Italian Bosses four hundred years before — they 
were not called Bosses then. 

Senator Piatt did not wish to have Roosevelt hold 
the governorship, or any other office in which the 
independent young man might worry the wily old 
Senator.^ But the Republican Party in New York 
State happened to be in such a very bad condition 
that the likelihood that it would carry the election 
that autumn was slight : for the public had tempo- 
rarily tired of Machine rule. Piatt's managers saw 
that they must pick out a really strong candidate and 
they understood that nobody at that moment could 
rival Roosevelt's popularity. So they impressed on 
Piatt that he must accept the Rough Rider Chief, 
and Mr. Lemuel Quigg, an ex-Congressman, a jour- 
nalist formerly on the New York Tribune, a stanch 
Republican, who nevertheless recognized that dis- 
cretion and intelligence might sometimes be allowed 
a voice in Machine dictation, journeyed to Montauk 
and had a friendly, frank conversation with the 
Colonel. 

* Piatt and Quay were both born in 1833. 



134 THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

Quigg spoke for nobody but himself; he merely 
wished to sound Roosevelt. Roosevelt made no 
pledges; he defined his general attitude and wished 
to understand what the Piatt Machine proposed. 
Quigg said that Piatt admitted that the present Gov- 
ernor, Black, could not be reelected, but that he had 
doubts as to Roosevelt's docility. Republican lead- 
ers and local chairmen in all parts of the State, how- 
ever, enthusiastically called for Roosevelt, and Quigg 
did not wish to have the Republican Party split into 
two factions. He believed that Piatt would accede 
if he could be convinced that Roosevelt would not 
"make war on him." Roosevelt, without promising 
anything, replied that he had no intention of mak- 
ing "war on Mr. Piatt, or on anybody else, if war 
could be avoided." He said 

that what [he] wanted was to be Governor and not a faction 
leader; that [he] certainly would confer with the organization 
men, as with everybody else who seemed to [him] to have 
knowledge of and interest in public affairs, and that as to 
Mr. Piatt and the organization leaders, [he] would do so in 
the sincere hope that there might always result harmony of 
opinion and purpose; but that while [he] would try to get on 
well with the organization, the organization must with equal 
sincerity strive to do what [he] regarded as essential for the 
public good; and that in every case, after full consideration 
of what everybody had to say who might possess real knowl- 
edge of the matter, [he] should have to act finally as [his] 
own judgment and conscience dictated, and administer the 
State Government as [he] thought it ought to be administered.^ 

^ Autobiography, 295- 



GOVERNOR OF NEW YORK 135 

Having assured Roosevelt that his statements 
were exactly what Quigg expected, Quigg returned 
to New York City, reported his conversation to 
Piatt, and, in due season, the free citizens of New 
^ork learned that, with Piatt's consent, the Colonel 
of the Rough Riders would be nominated by the Re- 
publican State Convention for the governorship of 
New York. 

During the campaign, Roosevelt stumped the 
State at a pace unknown till then. It was his first 
real campaign, and he went from place to place in a 
special train speaking at every stop from his car 
platform or, in the larger towns, staying long enough 
to address great audiences out of doors or in the local 
theatre. In November, he was elected by a majority 
of 18,000, a slender margin as it looks now, but suffi- 
cient for its purpose, and representing a really nota- 
ble victory, because it had been expected that the 
Democrats would beat any other Republican can- 
didate but him by overwhelming odds. So, after 
an absence of fifteen years, he returned to dwell in 
Albany. 

Before he was sworn in as Governor, he had al- 
ready measured strength with Senator Piatt. The 
Senator asked him with amiable condescension 
whether he had any special friends he would like 
to have appointed on the committees. Roosevelt 



136 THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

expressed surprise, supposing that the Speaker ap- 
pointed committees. Then Piatt told him that the 
Speaker had not been agreed upon yet, but that of 
course he would name the list given to him. Roose- 
velt understood the situation, but said nothing. A 
week later, however, at another conference, Piatt 
handed him a telegram, in which the sender accepted 
with pleasure his appointment as Superintendent of 
Public Works. Roosevelt liked this man and thought 
him honest, but he did not think him the best person 
for that particular work, and he did not intend as 
Governor to have his appointments dictated to him, 
because he would naturally be held responsible for 
his appointees. When he told Piatt that that man 
would not do, the Senator flew into a passion ; he had 
never met such insubordination before in any public 
official, and he decided to fight the issue from the 
start. Roosevelt did not allow himself to lose his tem- 
per; he was perfectly polite while Piatt let loose his 
fury; and before they parted Piatt understood which 
was master. The Governor appointed Colonel Par- 
tridge to the position and, as it had chiefly to do with 
the canals of the State, it was most important. In- 
deed, the canal scandals under Roosevelt's prede- 
cessor, Governor Black, had so roused the popular 
conscience that it threatened to break down the su- 
premacy of the Republican Party. 



GOVERNOR OF NEW YORK 137 

Jacob Riis describes Roosevelt's administration as 
introducing the Ten Commandments into the gov- 
ernment at Albany, and we need hardly be told that 
the young Governor applied his usual methods and 
promoted his favorite reforms. Finding the Civil 
Service encrusted with abuses, he pushed legislation 
which established a high standard of reform. The 
starch which had been taken out of the Civil Service 
Law under Governor Black was put back, stiffened. 
He insisted on enforcing the Factory Law, for the 
protection of operatives; and the law regulating 
sweat-shops, which he inspected himself, with Riis 
for his companion. 

Perhaps his hottest battle was over the law to tax 
corporations which held public franchises. This 
touched the owners of street railways in the cities and 
towns, and many other corporations which enjoyed 
a monopoly in managing quasi-public utilities. "In 
politics there is no politics, " said that elderly early 
mentor of Roosevelt when he first sat in the Assem- 
bly. Legislatures existed simply to do the bidding 
of Big Business, was the creed of the men who con- 
trolled Big Business. They contributed impartially 
to the Republican and Democratic campaign funds. 
They had Republican Assemblymen and Democratic 
Assemblymen in their service, and their lobbyists 
worked harmoniously with either party. Merely to 



138 THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

suggest that the special privileges of the corpora- 
tions might be open to discussion was sacrilege. No 
wonder, therefore, that the holders of public fran- 
chises marshaled all their forces against the Gov- 
ernor. 

Boss Piatt wrote Roosevelt a letter — one of the 
sort inspired more by sorrow than by anger — to 
the effect that he had been warned that the Gover- 
nor was a little loose on the relations of capital and 
labor, on trusts and combinations, and, in general, 
on the right of a man to run his business as he chose, 
always respecting, of course, the Ten Command- 
ments and the Penal Code. The Senator was shocked 
and pained to perceive that this warning had a real 
basis, and that the Governor's "altruism" in behalf 
of the people had led him to urge curtailing the 
rights of corporations. Roosevelt, instead of feeling 
contrite at this chiding, redoubled his energy. The 
party managers buried the bill. Roosevelt then sent 
a special message, as the New York Governors are 
empowered to do. It was laid on the Speaker's desk, 
but no notice was taken of it. The next morning he 
sent this second message to the Speaker: 

I learn that the emergency message which I sent last eve- 
ning to the Assembly on behalf of the Franchise Tax Bill has 
not been read. I, therefore, send hereby another. I need not 
impress upon the Assembly the need of passing this bill at 
once. ... It establishes the principle tha<r hereafter corpora- 



GOVERNOR OF NEW YORK 139 

tions holding franchises from the pubHc shall pay their just 
share of the public burden.^ 

The Speaker, the Assembly, and the Machine now 
gave heed. The corporations saw that it would be 
suicidal to bring down on themselves the avalanche 
of fury which was accumulating. The bill passed. 
Roosevelt had set a precedent for controlling cor- 
porate truculence. 

While Roosevelt was accomplishing these very 
real triumphs for justice and popular welfare, the 
professional critics went on finding fault with him. 
Although the passage of one bill after another gave 
tangible proof that, far from being Piatt's "man," 
or the slave of the Machine, he followed his own 
ideals, this did not satisfy these critics. They sus- 
pected that there was some wickedness behind it, and 
they professed to be greatly disturbed that Roosevelt 
frequently breakfasted or dined with Piatt. What 
could this mean except that he took his instructions 
from the Boss? How could he, who made a pretense 
of righteousness, consent to visit the Sunday-School 
political teacher, much less to sit at the table with 
him? The doubts and anxieties of these self-ap- 
pointed defenders of public morals, and of the Re- 
public even, found a spokesman in a young journalist 
who had then come recently from college. This per- 

* Riis, 221. 



140 THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

son, whom we will call X., met Mr. Roosevelt at a 
public reception and with the brusqueness, to put it 
mildly, of a hereditary reformer, he demanded to 
know why the Governor breakfasted and dined with 
Boss Piatt. Mr. Roosevelt replied, with that cour- 
tesy of his which was never more complete than 
when it conveyed his sarcasm, that a person in pub- 
lic office, like himself, was obliged to meet officially 
all kinds of men and women, and he added: "Why, 
Mr. X., I have even dined with your father." X. did 
not pursue his investigation, and the bystanders, 
who had vague recollections of the father's misfor- 
tunes in Wall Street, thought that the son was a 
little indiscreet even for a hereditary reformer. 

The truth about Roosevelt's going to Piatt and 
breakfasting with him was very simple. The Senator 
spent the week till Friday afternoon in Washington, 
then he came to New York for Saturday and Sunday. 
Being somewhat infirm, although he was not, as we 
now reckon, an old man, he did not care to extend 
his trip to Albany, and so the young and vigorous 
Governor ran down from Albany and, at breakfast 
with Piatt, discussed New York State affairs. What 
I have already quoted indicates, I think, that no- 
body knew better than the Boss himself that Roose- 
velt was not his "man." 

One other example is too good to omit. The Super- 



GOVERNOR OF NEW YORK 141 

intendent of Insurance was really one of Piatt's men, 
and a person most grateful to the insurance com- 
panies. Governor Roosevelt, regarding him as unfit, 
fiot only declined to reappoint him, but actually ap- 
pointed in his stead a superintendent whom Piatt 
and the insurance companies could not manage, and 
so hated. Piatt remonstrated. Finding his arguments 
futile, he broke out in threats that if his man was 
not reappointed, he would fight. He would forbid 
the Assembly to confirm Roosevelt's candidate. 
Roosevelt replied that as soon as the Assembly ad- 
journed, he should appoint his candidate tempo- 
rarily. Piatt declared that when it reconvened, the 
Assembly would throw him out. This did not, how- 
ever, frighten Roosevelt, who remarked that, al- 
though he foresaw he should have an uncomfortable 
time himself, he would "guarantee to make his 
opponents more uncomfortable still." 

Later that day Piatt sent one of his henchmen to 
deliver an ultimatum to the Governor. He repeated 
Piatt's threats, but was unable to make an impres- 
sion. Roosevelt got up to go. "You know it means 
your ruin?" said the henchman solemnly. "Well, 
we will see about that," Roosevelt replied, and had 
nearly reached the door when the henchman, anxious 
to give the prospective victim a last chance, warned 
him that the Senator would open the fight on the 



142 THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

next day, and keep it up to the bitter end. "Yes," 
replied the Governor; "good-night." And he was just 
going out, when the henchman rushed after him., call- 
ing, "Hold on! We accept. Send in your nomination. 
The Senator is very sorry, but will make no further 
opposition." ^ Roosevelt adds that the bluff was 
carried through to the limit, but that after it failed, 
Piatt did not renew his attempt to interfere with him. 

Nevertheless, Roosevelt made no war on Piatt or 
anybody else, merely for the fun of it. "We must 
use the tools we have," said Lincoln to John Hay; 
and Lincoln also had many tools which he did not 
choose, but which he had to work with. Roosevelt 
differed from the doctrinaire reformer, who would 
sit still and do nothing unless he had perfectly clean 
tools and pure conditions to work with. To do noth- 
ing until the millennium came would mean, of 
course, that the Machine would pursue its methods 
undisturbed. Roosevelt, on the contrary, knew that 
by cooperating with the Machine, as far as his con- 
science permitted, he could reach results much better 
than it aimed at. 

Here are three of his letters to Piatt, written at a 

time when the young journalist and the reformers of 

his stripe shed tears at the thought that Theodore 

Roosevelt was the obsequious servant of Boss Piatt. 

^ Autobiography, 317. 



GOVERNOR OF NEW YORK 143 

The first letter refers to Roosevelt's nomination 
to the Vice-Presidency, a possibility which the public 
was already discussing. The last two letters, written 
after he had been nominated by the Republicans, 
relate to the person whom he wished to see succeed 
himself as Governor of New York. 

Roosevelt to Platt 

February i, 1900 
First, and least important. If you happened to have seen 
the Evening Post recently, you ought to be amused, for it is 
moralizing with lofty indignation over the cringing servility 
I have displayed in the matter of the insurance superintend- 
ent. I fear it will soon take the view that it cannot possibly 
support you as long as you associate with me ! 

Now as to serious matters. I have, of course, done a great 
deal of thinking about the Vice-Presidency since the talk I 
had with you followed by the letter from Lodge and the visit 
from Payne, of Wisconsin. I have been reserving the matter 
to talk over with you, but in view of the publication in the 
Sun this morning, I would like to begin the conversation, as 
it were, by just a line or two now. I need not speak of the 
confidence I have in the judgment of you and Lodge, yet I 
can't help feeling more and more that the Vice-Presidency is 
not an office in which I could do anything and not an office 
in which a man who is still vigorous and not past middle life 
has much chance of doing anything. As you know, I am of an 
active nature. In spite of all the work and all the worry, — 
and very largely because of your own constant courtesy and 
consideration, my dear Senator, — I have thoroughly en- 
joyed being Governor. I have kept ever>' promise, express or 
implied, I made on the stump, and I feel that the Republican 
Party is stronger before the State because of my incumbency. 



144 THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

Certainly everything is being managed now on a perfectly 
straight basis and every office is as clean as a whistle. 

Now, I should like to be Governor for another term, espe- 
cially if we are able to take hold of the canals in serious shape. 
But as Vice-President, I don't see there is anything I can do. 
I would simply be a presiding officer, and that I should find 
a bore. As you know, I am a man of moderate means (al- 
though I am a little better off than the Sun's article would 
indicate) and I should have to live very simply in Washington 
and could not entertain in any way as Mr. Hobart and Mr. 
Morton entertained. My children are all growing up and I find 
the burden of their education constantly heavier, so that I 
am by no means sure that I ought to go into public life at all, 
provided some remunerative work offered itself. The only 
reason I would like to go on is that as I have not been a money 
maker I feel rather in honor bound to leave my children the 
equivalent in a way of a substantial sum of actual achieve- 
ment in politics or letters. Now, as Governor, I can achieve 
something, but as Vice-President I should achieve nothing. 
The more I look at it, the less I feel as if the Vice-Presidency 
offered anything to me that would warrant my taking it. 

Of course, I shall not say anything until I hear from you, 
and possibly not until I see you, but I did want you to know 
just how I felt. 

Roosevelt to Platt 

Oyster Bay, August 13, 1900 
I noticed in Saturday's paper that you had spoken of my 
suggesting Judge Andrews. I did not intend to make the sug- 
gestion public, and I wrote you with entire freedom, hoping 
that perhaps I could suggest some man who would commend 
himself to your judgment as being acceptable generally to 
the Republican Party. I am an organization Republican of a 
very strong type, as I understand the word "organization," 
but in trying to suggest a candidate for Governor, I am not 



GOVERNOR OF NEW YORK 145 

seeking either to put up an organization or a non-organization 
man, but simply a first-class Republican, who will commend 
himself to all Republicans, and, for the matter of that, to all 
citizens who wish good government. Judge Andrews needs 
no endorsement from any man living as to his Republicanism. 
From the time he was Mayor of Syracuse through his long 
and distinguished service on the bench he has been recognized 
as a Republican and a citizen of the highest type. I write this 
because your interview seems to convey the impression, which 
I am sure you did not mean to convey, that in some way my 
suggestions are antagonistic to the organization. I do not 
understand quite what you mean by the suggestion of my 
friends, for I do not know who the men are to whom you thus 
refer, nor why they are singled out for reference as making 
any suggestions about the Governorship. 

In your last interview, I understood that you wished me to 
be back in the State at the time of the convention. As I wish 
to be able to give the nominee hearty and effective support, 
this necessarily means that I do have a great interest in whom 
is nominated. 

Roosevelt to Platt 

Oyster Bay, August 20, 1900 
I have your letter of the i6th. I wish to see a straight R.e- 
publican nomination for the governorship. The men whom I 
have mentioned, such as ex-Judge Andrews and Secretary 
Root, are as good Republicans as can be found in the State, 
and I confess I have n't the slightest idea what you mean 
when you say, "if we are to lower the standard and nominate 
such men as you suggest, we might as well die first as last." 
To nominate such a man as either of these is to raise the 
standard ; to speak of it as lowering the standard is an utter 
misuse of words. 

You say that we must nominate some Republican who 
"will carry out the wishes of the organization," and add that 



146 THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

" I have not yet made up my mind who that man is." Of one 
thing I am certain, that, to have it pubUcly known that the 
candidate, whoever he may be, "will carry out the wishes oi 
the organization," would insure his defeat; for such a state- 
ment implies that he would merely register the decrees of a 
small body of men inside the Republican Party, instead of 
trying to work for the success of the party as a whole and of 
good citizenship generally. It is not the business of a Governor 
to "carr>' out the wishes of the organization" unless these 
wishes coincide with the good of the Party and of the State. 
If they do, then he ought to have them put into effect; if they 
do not, then as a matter of course he ought to disregard them. 
To pursue any other course would be to show servility; and a 
servile man is always an undesirable — not to say a contempt- 
ible — public servant. A Governor should, of course, try in 
good faith to work with the organization; but under no cir- 
cumstances should he be servile to it, or "carry out its wishes " 
unless his own best judgment is that they ought to be carried 
out. I am a good organization man myself, as I understand the 
word "organization," but it is in the highest degree foolish 
to make a fetish of the word "organization " and to treat any 
man or any small group of men as embodying the organiza- 
tion. The organization should strive to give effective, intelli- 
gent, and honest leadership to and representation of the 
Republican Party, just as the Republican Party strives to 
give wise and upright government to the State. When what 
I have said ceases to be true of either organization or party, 
it means that the organization or party is not performing its 
duty, and is losing the reason for its existence.^ 

Roosevelt's independence as Governor of New 
York, and the very important reforms which, in 
spite of the Machine, he had driven through, greatly 
increased his personal popularity throughout the 

1 Washburn, 34-38. 



GOVERNOR OF NEW YORK 147 

countr>^ To citizens, East and West, who knew 
nothing about the condition of the factories, canals, 
and insurance institutions in New York State, the 
name "Roosevelt" stood for a man as honest as he 
was energetic, and as fearless as he was true. Piatt 
and the Machine naturally wished to get rid of this 
marplot, who could not be manipulated, who held 
strange and subversive ideas as to the extent to 
which the Ten Commandments and the Penal Code 
should be allowed to encroach on politics and Big 
Business, and who was hopelessly "altruistic" in 
caring for the poor and down-trodden and outcast. 
Even Piatt knew that, while it would not be safe for 
him to try to dominate the popular hero against his 
own preference and that of the public, still to shelve 
Roosevelt in the office of Vice-President would bring 
peace to the sadly disturbed Boss, and would restore 
jobs to many of his greedy followers. So he talked up 
the Vice-Presidency for Roosevelt, and he let the 
impression circulate that in the autumn there would 
be a new Governor. 

Roosevelt, however, repeated to many persons the 
views he wrote to Piatt in the letter quoted above, 
and his friends and opponents both understood that 
he wished to continue as Governor for another two 
years, to carry on the fight against corruption, and 
to save himself from being laid away in the Vice- 



148 THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

Presidency — the receiving- tomb of many ambitious 
politicians. In spite of the fact that within thirty- 
five years, by the assassination of two Presidents, 
two Vice-Presidents had succeeded to the highest 
office in the Nation, Vice-Presidents were popularly 
regarded as being mere phantoms without any real 
power or influence as long as their term lasted, and 
cut off from all hopes in the future. Roosevelt him- 
self had this notion. But the Presidential conven- 
tions, with criminal disregard of the qualifications of 
a candidate to perform the duties of President if 
accident thrust them upon him, went on recklessly 
nominating nonentities for Vice-President. 

The following extract from a confidential letter 
by John Hay, Secretary of State, to Mr. Henry 
White, at the American Embassy in London, reveals 
the attitude towards Roosevelt of the Administra- 
tion itself. Allowance must be made, of course, for 
Hay's well-known habit of persiflage: 

Hay to Henry White 

Teddy has been here : have you heard of it? It was more fun 
than a goat. He came down with a sombre resolution thrown 
on his strenuous brow to let McKinley and Hanna know 
once for all that he would not be Vice-President, and found 
to his stupefaction that nobody in Washington, except Piatt, 
had ever dreamed of such a thing. He did not even have a 
chance to launch his nolo episcopari at the Major. That states- 
man said he did not want him on the ticket — that he would 



GOVERNOR OF NEW YORK 149 

be far more valuable in New York — and Root said, with his 
frank and murderous smile, *'0f course not — you're not fit 
for it." And so he went back quite eased in his mind, but con- 
siderably bruised in his amour propre. 

In February, Roosevelt issued a public notice that 
he would not consent to run for the Vice-Presidency, 
and throughout the spring, until the meeting of the 
Republican Convention In Philadelphia, on June 
21st, he clung to that determination. Piatt, anxious 
lest Roosevelt should be reelected Governor against 
the plans of the Machine, quietly worked up a 
"boom" for Roosevelt's nomination as Vice-Presi- 
dent; and he connived with Quay to steer the Penn- 
sylvania delegation In the same direction. The dele- 
gates met and renominated McKinley as a matter 
of course. Then, with Irresistible pressure, they in- 
sisted on nominating Roosevelt. Swept off his feet, 
and convinced that the demand came genuinely 
from representatives from all over the country, he 
accepted, and was chosen by acclamation. The Boss- 
led delegations from New York and Pennsylvania 
added their votes to those of the real Roosevelt 
enthusiasts 

Happy, pious Tom Piatt, relieved from the night- 
mare of having to struggle for two years more with 
a Retorm Governor at Albany ! Some of Roosevelt's 
critics construed his yielding, at the last moment, aa 



150 THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

evidence of his being ruled by Piatt after all. But this 
insinuation collapsed as soon as the facts were known. 
As an episode in the annals of political sport, I 
should like to have had Roosevelt run for Governor 
a second time, defy Piatt and all his imps, and be 
reelected. 

As I have just quoted Secretary Hay's sarcastic 
remarks on the possibility that Roosevelt might be 
the candidate for Vice-President, I will add this 
extract from Hay's note to the successful candidate 
himself, dated June 21st: 

As it is all over but the shouting, I take a moment of this 
cool morning of the longest day in the year to offer you my 
cordial congratulations. . . . You have received the greatest 
compliment the country could pay you, and although it was 
not precisely what you and your friends desire, I have no 
doubt it is all for the best. Nothing can keep you from doing 
good work wherever you are — nor from getting lots of fun 
out of it.^ 

The Presidential campaign which followed, shook 
the country only a little less than that of 1896 had 
done. For William J. Bryan was again the Demo- 
cratic candidate, honest money — the gold against 
the silver standard — was again the issue — al- 
though the Spanish War had injected Imperialism 
into the Republican platform — and the conserva- 
tive elements were still anxious. The persistence of 
1 W. R. Thayer: John Hay, 11, 343. 



VICE-PRESIDENT 151 

the Free Silver heresy and of Bryan's hold on the 
popular imagination alarmed them; for it seemed to 
contradict the hope implied in Lincoln's saying that 
you can't fool all the people all the time. Here was 
a demagogue, who had been exposed and beaten four 
years before, who raised his head — or should I say 
his voice? — with increased effrontery and to an 
equally large and enthusiastic audience. 

Roosevelt took his full share in campaigning for 
the Republican ticket. He spoke in the East and in 
the West, and for the first time the people of many 
of the States heard him speak and saw his actual 
presence. His attitude as a speaker, his gestures, the 
way in which his pent-up thoughts seemed almost to 
strangle him before he could utter them, his smile 
showing the white rows of teeth, his fist clenched as 
if to strike an invisible adversary, the sudden drop- 
ping of his voice, and leveling of his forefinger as he 
became almost conversational in tone, and seemed to 
address special individuals in the crowd before him, 
the strokes of sarcasm, stern and cutting, and the 
swift flashes of humor which set the great multitude 
in a roar, became in that summer and autumn fa- 
miliar to millions of his countrymen; and the car- 
toonists made his features and gestures familiar to 
many other millions. On his Western trip, Roosevelt 
for a companion and understudy had Curtis Guild, 



152 THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

and more than once when Roosevelt lost his voice 
completely, Guild had to speak for him. Up to elec- 
tion day in November, the Republicans did not feel 
confident, but when the votes were counted, McKin- 
ley had a plurality of over 830,000, and beat Bryan 
by more than a million. 

By an absurd and bungling practice, which obtains 
in our political life, the Administration elected in 
November does not take office until the following 
March, an interval which permits the old Adminis- 
tration, often beaten and discredited, to continue in 
office for four months after the people have turned it 
out. As we have lately seen, such an Administration 
does not experience a death-bed repentance, but 
employs the moratorium to rivet upon the country 
the evil policies which the people have repudiated. 
This interval Roosevelt spent in finishing his work 
as Governor of New York State, and in removing 
to Washington. Then he had a foretaste of the life 
of inactivity to which the Vice- Presidency doomed 
him. 

After being sworn in on March 4, 1901, his only 
stated duty was to preside over the Senate, but as 
the Senate did not usually sit during the hot weather, 
he had still more leisure thrust upon him. Of course, 
he could write, and there never was a time, even at 
his busiest, when he had not a book, or addresses, 



VICE-PRESIDENT . 153 

or articles on the stocks. But writing alone was not 
now sufficient to exercise his very vigorous faculties. 
Perhaps, for the first time in his life, he may have 
had a foreboding of what ennui meant. He consulted 
Justice White, now Chief Justice of the Supreme 
Court, whether it would be proper for him to enroll 
himself as a student in the Washington Law School. 
Justice White feared that this might be regarded as 
a slight to the dignity of the Vice-Presidential office, 
but he told Roosevelt what law-books to read, and 
offered to quiz him every Saturday evening. Before 
autumn came, however, when they could carry out 
their plan, a tragic event altered the course of Roosc' 
velt's career. 



D 



CHAPTER IX 

PRESIDENT 

URING the summer of 1901, the city of 
'Buffalo, New York, held a Pan-American Expo- 
sition. President McKinley visited this and, while 
holding a public reception on September 6, he was 
twice shot by Leon Czolgosz, a Polish anarchist. 
When the news reached him, Roosevelt went straight 
to Buffalo, to attend to any matters which the Presi- 
dent might suggest; but as the surgeons pronounced 
the wounds not fatal nor even dangerous, Roosevelt 
left with a light heart, and joined his family at 
Mount Tahawus in the Adirondacks. For several 
days cheerful bulletins came. Then, on Friday after- 
noon the 13th, when the Vice-President and his party 
were coming down from a climb to the top of Mount 
Marcy, a messenger brought a telegram which read: 
The President's condition has changed for the worse. 

CORTELYOU. 

The climbers on Mount Marcy were fifty miles 
from the end of the railroad and ten miles from the 
nearest telephone at the lower club-house. They 
hurried forward on foot, following the trail to the 
nearest cottage ; where a runner arrived with a mes- 



PRESIDENT 155 

sage, "Come at once." Further messages awaited 
them at the lower club-house. President McKinley 
was dying, and Roosevelt must lose no time. His 
secretary, William Loeb, telephoned from North 
Creek, the end of the railroad, that he had had a 
locomotive there for hours with full steam up. So 
Roosevelt and the driver of his buckboard dashed on 
through the night, over the uncertain mountain 
road, dangerous even by daylight, at breakneck 
speed. Dawn was breaking when they came to 
North Creek. There, Loeb told him that President 
McKinley was dead. Then they steamed back to 
civilization as fast as possible, reached the main 
trunk line, and sped on to Buffalo without a mo- 
ment's delay. It was afternoon when the special 
train came into the station, and Roosevelt, having 
covered the distance of 440 miles from Mount 
Marcy, was driven to the house of Ansley Wilcox. 
Most of the Cabinet had preceded him to Buffalo, 
and Secretary Root, the ranking member present — 
Secretary Hay having remained in Washington — 
asked the Vice-President to be sworn in at once. 
Roosevelt replied: 

I shall take the oath of office in obedience to your request, 
sir, and in doing so, it shall be my aim to continue absolutely 
unbroken the policies of President McKinley for the peace, 
prosperity, and honor of our beloved country. 



156 THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

The oath having been administered, the new Presi- 
dent said: 

In order to help me keep the promise I have taken, I would 
ask the Cabinet to retain their positions at least for some 
months to come. I shall rely upon you, gentlemen, upon your 
loyalty and fidelity, to help me.^ 

On September 19, John Hay wrote to his intimate 
friend, Henry Adams: 

I have just received your letter from Stockholm and shud- 
dered at the awful clairvoyance of your last phrase about 
Teddy's luck. 

Well, he is here in the saddle again. That is, he is in Canton 
to attend President McKinley's funeral and will have his 
first Cabinet meeting in the White House tomorrow. He 
came down from Buffalo Monday night — and in the station, 
without waiting an instant, told me I must stay with him — 
that I could not decline nor even consider. I saw, of course, 
it was best for him to start off that way, and so I said I would 
stay, forever, of course, for it would be worse to say I would 
stay a while than it would be to go out at once. I can still go 
at any moment he gets tired of me or when I collapse.^ 

Writing to Lady Jeune at this time Hay said: 

I think you know Mr. Roosevelt, our new President. He 
IS an old and intimate friend of mine: a young fellow of 
infinite dash and originality. 

In this manner, "Teddy's luck" brought him into 
the White House, as the twenty-sixth President of 
the United States. Early in the summer, his old col- 
^ Washburn, 40. 2 \y. r, Thayer: John Hay, ii, 268. 



PRESIDENT 157 

lege friend and steadfast admirer, Charles Wash- 
burn, remarked: "I would not like to be in McKin- 
ley's shoes. He has a man of destiny behind him." 
Destiny is the one artificer who can use all tools and 
who finds a short cut to his goal through ways mys- 
terious and most devious. As I have before remarked, 
nothing commonplace could happen to Theodore 
Roosevelt. He emerged triumphant from the receiv- 
ing-vault of the Vice-Presidency, where his enemies 
supposed they had laid him away for good. In ancient 
days, his midnight dash from Mount Marcy, and his 
flight by train across New York State to Buffalo, 
would have become a myth symbolizing the response 
of a hero to an Olympian summons. If we ponder it 
well, was it indeed less than this? 

In 1899, Mr. James Bryce, the most penetrat- 
ing of foreign observers of American life had said, 
in words that now seem prophetic: "Theodore 
Roosevelt is the hope of American politics." 



CHAPTER X 

THE WORLD WHICH ROOSEVELT CONFRONTED 

TO understand the work of a statesman we 
must know something of the world in which 
he Hved. That is his material, out of which he tries 
to embody his ideals as the sculptor carves his out 
of marble. We are constantly under the illusions of 
time. Some critics say, for instance, that Washington 
fitted so perfectly the environment of the American 
Colonies during the last half of the eighteenth cen- 
tury, that he was the direct product of that environ- 
ment; I prefer to think, however, that he possessed 
certain individual traits which, and not the time, 
made him George Washington, and would have en- 
abled him to have mastered a different period if he 
had been born in it. In like manner, having known 
Theodore Roosevelt, I do not believe that he would 
have been dumb or passive or colorless or slothful or 
futile under any other conceivable conditions. Just 
as it was not New York City, nor Harvard, nor 
North Dakota, which made him Roosevelt, so the 
Roosevelt in him would have persisted under what- 
ever sky. 

The time offers the opportunities. The gift in the 



WORLD CONFRONTED BY ROOSEVELT 159 

man, innate and incalculable, determines how he will 
seize them and what he will do with them. Now it is 
because I think that R.oosevelt had a clear vision of 
the world in which he dwelt, and saw the path by 
which to lead and improve it, that his career has 
profound significance to me. Picturesque he was, 
and picturesqueness made whatever he did interest- 
ing. But far deeper qualities made him significant. 

From ancient times, at least from the days of 
Greece and Rome, Democracy as a political ideal 
had been dreamed of, and had even been put into 
practice on a small scale here and there. But its 
shortcomings and the frailty of human nature made 
it the despair of practical men and the laughing- 
stock of philosophers and ironists. Nevertheless, the 
conviction that no man has a right to enslave an- 
other would not die. And in modern times the Eng- 
lish sense of justice and the English belief that a 
man must have a right to be heard on matters con- 
cerning himself and his government, forced Democ- 
racy, as an actual system, to the front. The demand 
for representation caused the American colonists to 
break away from England and to govern themselves 
independently. Every one now sees that this demand 
was the just and logical carrying forward of English 
ideals. 

At about the same time, In France, Rousseau, 



i6o THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

gathering into his own heart, from many sources, the 
suggestions and emotions of Democracy, uttered 
them with a voice so magical that it roused millions 
of other hearts and made the emotions seem Intel- 
lectual proofs. As the magician waves his wand and 
turns common pebbles into precious stones, so 
Rousseau turned the dead crater of Europe into a 
molten volcano. The ideals of Fraternity and Equal- 
ity were joined with that of Liberty and the three 
were accepted as indivisible elements of Democracy. 
In the United States we set our Democratic prin- 
ciples going. In Europe the Revolution shattered 
many of the hateful methods of Despotism, shat- 
tered, but did not destroy them. The amazing genius 
of Napoleon intervened to deflect Europe from her 
march towards Democracy and to convert her into 
the servant of his personal ambition. 

Over here, in spite of the hideous contradiction 
of slavery, which ate like a black ulcer into a part of 
our body politic, the Democratic ideal not only pre- 
vailed, but came to be taken for granted as a heaven- 
revealed truth, which only fools would question or 
dispute. In Europe, the monarchs of the Old Regime 
made a desperate rally and put down Napoleon, 
thinking that by smashing him they would smash 
also the tremendous Democratic forces by which he 
had gained his supremacy. They put back, so far as 



■ WORLD CONFRONTED BY ROOSEVELT i6i 
they could, the old feudal bases of privilege and of 
more or less disguised tyranny. The Restoration 
could not slumber quietly, for the forces of the 
Revolution burst out from time to time. They wished 
to realize the liberty of which they had had a glimpse 
in 1789 and which the Old Regime had snatched 
away from them. The Spirit of Nationality now 
strengthened their efforts for independence and lib- 
erty and another Spirit came stalking after both. 
This was the Social Revolution, which refusing 
to be satisfied by a merely political victory boldly 
preached Internationalism as a higher ideal than 
Nationalism. Truly, Time 5till devours all his chil- 
dren, and the hysterical desires bred by half-truths 
prevent the coming and triumphant reign of Truth. 
While these various and mutually clashing motives 
swept Europe along during the first half of the nine- 
teenth century, a different current hurried the 
United States into the rapids. Should they continue 
to exist as one Union binding together sections with 
different interests, or should the Union be dissolved 
and those sections attempt to lead a separate polit- 
ical existence? Fortunately, for the preservation of 
the Union, the question of slavery was uppermost in 
one of the sections. Slavery could not be dismissed 
as a merely economic question. Many Americans de- 
clared that it was primarily a moral issue. And this 



i62 THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

transformed what the Southern section would gladly 
have limited to economics into a war for a moral 
ideal. With the destruction of slavery in the South 
the preservation of the Union came as a matter of 
course. 

The Civil War itself had given a great stimulus to 
industry, to the need of providing military equip- 
ment and supplies, and of extending, as rapidly as 
possible, the railroads which were the chief means 
of transportation. When the war ended in 1865, this 
expansion went on at an increasing rate. The energy 
which had been devoted to military purposes was 
now directed to commerce and industry, to develop- 
ing the vast unpeopled tracts from the Mississippi 
to the Pacific, and to exploiting the hitherto neglected 
or unknown natural resources of the country. Every 
year science furnished new methods of converting 
nature's products into man's wealth. Chemistry, the 
doubtful science, Midas-like, turned into gold every- 
thing that it touched. There were not native workers 
enough, and so a steady stream of foreign immi- 
grants flocked over from abroad. They came at 
first to better their own fortunes by sharing in the 
unlimited American harvests. Later, our Captains 
of Industry, regardless of the quality of the new- 
comers, and intent only on securing cheap labor to 
multiply their hoards, combed the lowest political 



WORLD CONFRONTED BY ROOSEVELT 163 

and social levels of southern Europe and of western 
Asia for employees. The immigrants ceased to look 
upon America as the Land of Promise, the land where 
they intended to settle, to make their homes, and to 
rear their children; it became for them only a huge 
factory where they earned a living and for which 
they felt no affection. On the contrary, many of them 
looked forward to returning to their native country 
as soon as they had saved up a little competence 
here. The politicians, equally negligent of the real 
welfare of the United States, gave to these masses 
of foreigners quick and unscrutinized naturalization 
as American citizens. 

So it fell out that before the end of the nineteenth 
century a great gulf was opening between Labor and 
Capital. Now a community can thrive only when all 
its classes feel that they have common interests ; but 
since American Labor was largely composed of for- 
eigners, it acquired a double antagonism to Capital. 
It had not only the supposed natural antagonism of 
employee to employer, but also the further cause of 
misunderstanding, and hostility even, which came 
from the foreignness of its members. Another omi- 
nous condition arose. The United States ceased to be 
the Land of Promise, where any hard-working and 
thrifty man could better himself and even become 
rich. The gates of Opportunity were closing. The 



i64 THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

free lands, which the Nation offered to any one who 
would cultivate them, had mostly been taken up; the 
immigrant who had been a laborer in Europe, was a 
laborer here. Moreover, the political conditions in 
Europe often added to the burdens and irritation 
caused by the industrial conditions there. And the 
immigrant in coming to America brought with him 
all his grievances, political not less than industrial. 
He was too ignorant to discriminate; he could only 
feel. Anarchy and Nihilism, which were his natural 
reaction against his despotic oppressors in Germany 
and Russia, he went on cultivating here, where, by 
the simple process of naturalization, he became po- 
litically his own despot in a year or two. 

But, of course, the very core of the feud which 
threatens to disrupt modern civilization was the dis- 
covery that, in any final adjustment, the political 
did not sufiftce. What availed it for the laborer and 
the capitalist to be equal at the polls, for the vote of 
one to count as much as the vote of the other, if the 
two men were actually worlds apart in their social 
and industrial lives? Equality must seem to the 
laborer a cruel deception and a sham unless it results 
in equality in the distribution of wealth and of oppor- 
tunity. How this is to be attained I have never seen 
satisfactorily stated ; but the impossibility of realiz- 
ing their dreams, or the blank folly of doting on 



WORLD CONFRONTED BY ROOSEVELT 165 

them, has never prevented men from striving to 
obtain them. From this has resulted the frantic pur- 
suit, during a century and a quarter, of all sorts of 
projects from Babuvism to Bolshevism, which, if 
they could not install Utopia overnight, were at 
least calculated to destroy Civilization as it is. The 
common feature of the propagandists of all these 
doctrines seems to be the thro wing-over of the Past ; 
not merely of the proved evils and inadequacies of 
the Past, but of our conception of right and wrong, 
of morals, of human relations, and of our duty 
towards the Eternal, which, having sprung out of 
the Past, must be jettisoned in a fury of contempt. 
In short, the destroyers of Society (writhing under 
the immemorial sting of injustice, which they be- 
lieved was wholly caused by their privileged fellows, 
and not even in part inherent in the nature of things) 
supposed that by blotting out Privilege they could 
establish their ideals of Justice and Equality. 

In the forward nations of Europe, not less than in 
the United States, these ideals had been arrived at, 
at least in name, and so far as concerned politics. 
Even in Germany, the most rigid of Absolute Despot- 
isms, a phantasm of political liberty was allowed to 
flit about the Halls of Parliament. But through the 
cunning of Bismarck the Socialist masses were bound 
all the more tightly to the Hohenzollern Despot by 



I66 THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

liens which seemed to be socialistic. Nevertheless, 
the principles of the Social Revolution spread secretly 
from European country to country, whether it pro- 
fessed to be Monarchical or Republican. 

In the United States, when Theodore Roosevelt 
succeeded to the Presidency in 1901, a similar an- 
tagonism between Capital and Labor had become 
chronic. Capital was arrogant. Its advance since the 
Civil War had been unmatched in history. The in- 
undation of wealth which had poured in, compared 
with all previous amassing of riches, was as the 
Mississippi to the slender stream of Pactolus. The 
men whose energy had created this wealth, and the 
snen who managed and increased it, lost the sense of 
their proper relations with the rest of the community 
and the Nation. According to the current opinion 
progress consisted in doubling wealth in the shortest 
time possible; this meant the employment of larger 
and larger masses of labor ; therefore laborers should 
be satisfied, nay, should be grateful to the capitalists 
who provided them with the means of a livelihood; 
and those capitalists assumed that what they re- 
garded as necessary to progress, defined by them, 
should be accepted as necessary to the prosperity of 
the Nation. 

Such an alignment of the two elements, which com- 
posed the Nation, indicated how far the so-called 



WORLD CONFRONTED BY ROOSEVELT 167 
Civilization, which modern industrialism has created, 
was from achieving that social harmony, which is the 
ideal and must be the base of every wholesome and 
enduring State. The condition of the working classes 
in this country was undoubtedly better than that in 
Europe. And the discontent and occasional violence 
here were fomented by foreign agitators who tried to 
make our workers believe that they were as much op- 
pressed as their foreign brothers. Wise observers saw 
that a collision, it might be a catastrophe, was bound 
to come unless some means could be found to bring 
concord to the antagonists. Here was surely an 
amazing paradox. The United States, already pos- 
sessed of fabulous wealth and daily amassing more, 
was heading straight for a social and economic revo- 
lution, because a part of the inhabitants claimed to 
be the slaves of industrialism and of poverty. 

This slight outline, which every reader can com- 
plete for himself, will serve to show what sort of a 
world, especially what sort of an American world, 
confronted Roosevelt when he took the reins of 
government. His task was stupendous, the problems 
he had to solve were baffling. Other public men of the 
time saw Its portents, but he alone seems to have 
felt that It was his duty to strain every nerve to 
avert the Impending disaster. And he alone, as it 
seems to me, understood the best means to take. 



1 68 THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

Honesty, Justice, Reason, were not to him mere 
words to decorate sonorous messages or to catch 
and placate the hearers of his passionate speeches; 
they were the most real of all realities, moral agents 
to be used to clear away the deadlock into which 
Civilization was settling. 



CHAPTER XI 
Roosevelt's foreign policy 

IN taking the oath of office at Buffalo, Roose- 
velt promised to continue President McKin- 
ley's policies. And this he set about doing loyally. He 
retained McKinley's Cabinet/ who were working 
out the adjustments already agreed upon. McKin- 
ley was probably the best-natured President who 
ever occupied the White House. He instinctively 
shrank from hurting anybody's feelings. Persons who 
went to see him in dudgeon, to complain against 
some act which displeased them, found him *' a bower 
of roses," too sweet and soft to be treated harshly. 
He could say " no " to applicants for office so gently 
that they felt no resentment. For twenty years he had 
advocated a protective tariff so mellifluously, and he 
believed so sincerely in its efficacy, that he could at 
any time hypnotize himself by repeating his own 
phrases. If he had ever studied the economic subject, 
it was long ago, and having adopted the tenets which 
an Ohio Republican could hardly escape from adopt- 
ing, he never revised them or even questioned their 

^ In April, 1901, J. W. Griggs had retired as Attorney-General 
and was succeeded by P. C. Knox; in January, 1902, C. E. Smith 
was replaced by H. W. Payne as Postmaster-General. 



170 THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

validity. His protectionism, like cheese, only grew 
stronger with age. As a politician, he was so hospita- 
ble that in the campaign of 1896, which was fought 
to maintain the gold standard and the financial hon- 
esty of the United States, he showed very plainly 
that he had no prejudice against free silver, and it 
was only at the last moment that the Republican 
managers could persuade him to take a firm stand 
for gold. 

The chief business which McKinley left behind 
him, the work which Roosevelt took up and carried 
on, concerned Imperialism. The Spanish War forced 
this subject to the front by leaving us in possession 
of the Philippines and by bequeathing to us the re- 
sponsibility for Cuba and Porto Rico. We paid Spain 
for the Philippines, and in spite of constitutional 
doubts as to how a Republic like the United States 
could buy or hold subject peoples, we proceeded to 
conquer those islands and to set up an American 
administration in them. We also treated Porto Rico 
as a colony, to enjoy the blessing of our rule. And 
while we allowed Cuba to set up a Republic of her 
own, we made it very clear that our benevolent pro- 
tection was behind her. 

All this constituted Imperialism, against which 
many of our soberest citizens protested. They alleged 
that as a doctrine it contradicted the fundamental 



ROOSEVELT'S FOREIGN POLICY 171 

principles on which our nation was built. Since the 
Declaration of Independence, America had stood 
before the world as the champion and example of 
Liberty, and by our Civil War she had purged her- 
self of Slavery. Imperialism made her the mistress of 
peoples who had never been consulted. Such moral 
inconsistency ought not to be tolerated. In addition 
to it was the political danger that lay in holding 
possessions on the other side of the Pacific. To keep 
them we must be prepared to defend them, and de- 
fense would involve maintaining a naval and mili- 
tary armament and of stimulating a warlike spirit, 
repugnant to our traditions. In short, Imperialism 
made the United States a World Power, and laid her 
open to its perils and entanglements. 

But while a minority of the men and women of 
sober judgment and conscience opposed Imperialism, 
the large majority accepted it, and among these was 
Theodore Roosevelt. He believed that the recent 
war had involved us in a responsibility which we 
could not evade if we would. Having destroyed Span- 
ish sovereignty in the Philippines, we must see to it 
that the people of those islands were protected. We 
could not leave them to govern themselves because 
they had no experience in government ; nor could we 
dodge our obligation by selling them to any other 
Power. Far from hesitating because of legal or moral 



172 THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

doubts, much less of questioning our ability to per- 
form this new task, Roosevelt embraced Imperialism, 
with all its possible issues, boldly not to say exult- 
antly. To him Imperialism meant national strength, 
the acknowledgment by the American people that 
the United States are a World Power and that they 
would not shrink from taking up any burden which 
that distinction involved. 

When President Cleveland, at the end of 1895, 
sent his swingeing message in regard to the Vene- 
zuelan Boundary quarrel, Roosevelt was one of the 
first to foresee the remote consequences. And by the 
time he himself became President, less than six 
years later, several events — our taking of the Ha- 
waiian Islands, the Spanish War, the island posses- 
sions which it saddled upon us — confirmed his con- 
viction that the United States could no longer live 
isolated from the great interests and policies of the 
world, but must take their place among the ruling 
Powers. Having reached national maturity we must 
accept Expansion as the logical and normal Ideal 
for our matured nation. Cleveland had laid down 
that the Monroe Doctrine was inviolable ; Roosevelt 
Insisted that w^e must not only bow to It In theory, 
but be prepared to defend it if necessary by force of 
arms. 

Very naturally, therefore, Roosevelt encouraged 



ROOSEVELT'S FOREIGN POLICY 173 

the passing of legislation needed to complete the 
settlement of our relations with our new possessions. 
He paid especial attention to the men he sent to 
administer the Philippines. In 1904 he appointed 
W. Cameron Forbes to the Commission. Taft made 
him Governor-General in 1909, and Mr. Forbes proved 
to be a Viceroy after the best British model, looking 
after the interest of his wards so honestly and com- 
petently that conditions In the Philippines improved 
rapidly, and the American public in general felt no 
qualms over possessing them. But the Anti- Imperi- 
alists, to whom a moral issue does not cease to be 
moral simply because it has a material sugar-coating, 
kept up their protest. 

There were, however, matters of internal policy; 
along with them Roosevelt inherited several foreign 
complications which he at once grappled with. In the 
Secretary of State, John Hay, he had a remarkable 
helper. Henry Adams told me that Hay was the first 
"man of the world" who had ever been Secretary of 
State. While this may be disputed, nobody can fail 
to see some truth in Adams's assertion. Hay had not 
only the manners of a gentleman, but also the special 
carriage of a diplomat. He was polite, affable, and 
usually accessible, without ever losing his innate dig- 
nity. An indefinable reserve warded off those who 
would either presume or indulge in undue familiarity. 



174 THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

His quick wits kept him always on his guard. His 
main defect was his unwillingness to regard the Sen- 
ate as having a right to pass judgment on his treaties. 
And instead of being compliant and compromising, 
he injured his cause with the Senators by letting 
them see too plainly that he regarded them as inter- 
lopers, and by peppering them with witty but not 
agreeable sarcasm. In dealing with foreign diplomats, 
on the other hand, he was at his best. They found 
him polished, straightforward, and urbane. He not 
only produced on them the impression of honesty, 
but he was honest. In all his diplomatic correspon- 
dence, whether he was writing confidentially to Amer- 
ican representatives or was addressing official notes 
to foreign governments, I do not recall a single hint 
of double-dealing. Hay was the velvet glove, Roose- 
velt the hand of steel. 

For many years Canada and the United States had 
enjoyed grievances towards each other, grievances 
over fisheries, over lumber, and other things, no one 
of which was worth going to war for. The discovery 
of gold in the Klondike, and the rush thither of thou- 
sands of fortune-seekers, revived the old question of 
the Alaskan Boundary; for it mattered a great deal 
whether some of the gold-fields were Alaskan — that 
is, American — or Canadian. Accordingly, a joint 
High Commission was appointed towards the end 



ROOSEVELT'S FOREIGN POLICY 175 

of McKinley's first administration to consider the 
claims and complaints of the two countries. The Ca- 
nadians, however, instead of settling each point on its 
own merits, persisted in bringing in a list of twelve 
grievances which varied greatly in importance, and 
this method favored trading one claim against an- 
other. The result was that the Commission, failing 
to agree, disbanded. Nevertheless, the irritation 
continued, and Roosevelt, having become President, 
and being a person who was constitutionally op- 
posed to shilly-shally, suggested to the State De- 
partment that a new Commission be appointed 
under conditions which would make a decision cer- 
tain. He even went farther, he took precautions to 
assure a verdict in favor of the United States. He 
appointed three Commissioners — Senators Lodge, 
Root, and Turner; the Canadians appointed two. 
Sir A. L. Jette and A. B. Aylesworth; the Eng- 
lish representative was Alverstone, the Lord Chief 
Justice. 

The President gave to Justice Oliver Wendell 
Holmes, of the Supreme Court, who was going 
abroad for the summer, a letter which he was "in- 
discreetly" to show Mr. Chamberlain, Mr. Balfour, 
and two or three other prominent Englishmen. In 
this letter he wrote: 



176 THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

The claims of the Canadians for access to deep water along 
any part of the Alaskan Coast is just exactly as indefensible 
as if they should now suddenly claim the Island of Nan- 
tucket. . . . 

I believe that no three men [the President said] In the 
United States could be found who would be more anxious 
than our own delegates to do justice to the British claim on 
all points where there is even a color of right on the British 
side. But the objection raised by certain Canadian authorities 
to Lodge, Root, and Turner, and especially to Lodge and 
Root, was that they had committed themselves on the gen- 
eral proposition. No man in public life in an}^ position of prom- 
inence could have possibly avoided committing himself on 
the proposition, any more than Mr. Chamberlain could avoid 
committing himself on the question of the ownership of the 
Orkneys if some Scandinavian country suddenly claimed 
them. If this claim embodied other points as to which there 
was legitimate doubt, I believe Mr. Chamberlain would act 
fairly and squarely in deciding the matter; but if he appointed 
a commission to settle up all these questions, I certainly 
should not expect him to appoint three men, if he could find 
them, who believed that as to the Orkneys the question was 
an open one. 

I wish to make one last effort to bring about an agreement 
through the Commission [he said in closing] which will enable 
the people of both countries to say that the result represents 
the feeling of the representatives of both countries. But if 
there is a disagreement, I wish it distinctly understood, not 
only that there will be no arbitration of the matter, but that 
in my message to Congress I shall take a position which will 
preventany possibility of arbitration hereafter; a position . . . 
which will render it necessary for Congress to give me the 
authority to run the line as we claim it, by our own people, 
without any further regard to the attitude of England and 
Canada. If I paid attention to mere abstract rights, that is 
the position I ought to take anyhow. I have not taken it be- 



ROOSEVELT'S FOREIGN POLICY 177 

cause I wish to exhaust every effort to have the affair settled 
peacefully and with due regard to England's honor. ^ 

f In due time the Commission gave a decision in 
favor of the American contention. Lord Al vers tone, 
who voted with the Americans, was suspected of hav- 
ing been chosen by the British Government because 
they knew his opinion, but I do not believe that this 
was true. A man of his honor, sitting in such a tribu- 
nal, would not have voted according to instructions 
from anybody. 

Roosevelt's brusque way of bringing the Alaska 
Boundary Question to a quick decision, may be crit- 
icised as not being judicial. He took the short cut, 
just as he did years before in securing a witness 
against the New York saloon-keepers who destroyed 
the lives of thousands of boys and girls by making 
them drunkards. Strictly, of course, if the boundary 
dispute was to be submitted to a commission, he 
ought to have allowed the other party to appoint its 
own commissioners without any suggestion from 
him. But as the case had dragged on interminably, 
and he believed, and the world believed, and the 
Canadians themselves knew, that they intended to 
filibuster and postpone as long as possible, he took 
the common-sense way to a settlement. If he had re- 
solved, as he had, to draw the boundary line "or 
^ W. R. Thayer: John Hay, 11, 209, 210. 



178 THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

his own hook," in case there was further pettifogging 
he committed no impropriety in warning the British 
statesmen of his purpose. In judging these Roose- 
veltian short cuts, the reader must decide whether 
they were justified by the good which they achieved. 
Of even greater importance was the understand- 
ing reached, under Roosevelt's direction, with the, 
British Government in regard to the construction of 
a canal across the Isthmus of Panama. By the Clay- 
ton-Bulwer Treaty of 1850, the United States and 
Great Britain agreed to maintain free and uninter- 
rupted passage across the Isthmus, and, further, that 
neither country should "obtain or maintain to itself 
any control over the said ship-canal," or "assume 
or exercise any dominion . . . over any part of Cen- 
tral America." The ship-canal talked about as a prob- 
ability in 1850 had become a necessity by 1900. 
During the Spanish-American War, the American 
battleship Oregon had been obliged to make the voy- 
age round Cape Horn, from San Francisco to Cuba, 
and this served to impress on the people of the United 
States the really acute need of a canal across the 
Isthmus, so that in time of war with a powerful 
enemy, our Atlantic fleet and our Pacific fleet might 
quickly pass from one coast to another. It would 
obviously be impossible for us to play the r61e of a 
World Power unless we had this short line of com- 



ROOSEVELT'S FOREIGN POLICY 179 
munication. But the conditions of peace, not less 
than the emergencies of war, called for a canal. In- 
ternational commerce, as well as our own, required 
the saving of thousands of miles of distance. 

About 1880, the French under Count De Lesseps 
undertook to construct a canal from Panama to As- 
pinwall, but after half a dozen years the French com- 
pany suspended work, partly for financial reasons, 
and partly on account of the enormous loss of life 
among the diggers from the pestilent nature of the 
climate and the country. Then followed a period of 
waiting, until it seemed certain that the French would 
never resume operations. American promoters pressed 
the claims of a route through Nicaragua where they 
could secure concessions. But it became clear that an 
enterprise of such far-reaching political importance as 
a trans-Isthmian canal, should be under governmen- 
tal control. John Hay had been less than a year in the 
Department of State when he set about negotiating 
with England a treaty which should embody his 
ideas. In Sir Julian Pauncefote, the British Ambas- 
sador at Washington, he had a most congenial man 
to deal with. Both were gentlemen, both were firmly 
convinced that a canal must be constructed for the 
good of civilization, both held that to assure the 
friendship of the two great branches of the English- 
speaking race should be the transcendent aim of each. 



l8o THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

They soon made a draft of a treaty which was sub- 
mitted to the Senate, but the Senators so amended 
it that the British Government refused ^to accept 
their amendments, and the project failed. Hay was 
so terribly chagrined at the Senate's interference 
tliat he wished to resign. There could be no doubt 
now, however, that if the canal had been undertaken 
on the terms of his first treaty, it would never have 
satisfied the United States and it would probably 
have been a continual source of international irrita- 
tion. Roosevelt was at that time Governor of New 
York, and I quote the following letter from him to 
Hay because it shows how clearly he saw the ob- 
jections to the treaty, and the fundamental princi- 
ples for the control of an Isthmian canal: 

Albany, Feb. i8, 1900 
I hesitated long before I said anything about the treaty 
through sheer dread of tvvo moments — that in which I should 
receive your note, and that in which I should receive Cabot's.* 
But I made up my mind that at least I wished to be on 
record; for to my mind this step is one backward, and it may 
be fraught with very great mischief. You have been the 
greatest Secretary of State I have seen in my time — Olney 
comes second — but at this moment I can not, try as I may, 
see that you are right. Understand me. When the treaty is 
adopted, as I suppose it will be, I shall put the best face pos- 
sible on it, and shall back the Administration as heartily as 
ever, but oh, how I wish you and the President would drop 
the treaty and push through a bill to build and fortify our own 
canal. 

1 Serxator Henry Cabot Lodge, who also opposed the first treaty. 



ROOSEVELT'S FOREIGN POLICY 



i8i 



My objections are twofold. First, as to naval policy. If the 
proposed canal had been in existence in '98, the Oregon could 
have come more quickly through to the Atlantic; but this 
fact would have been far outweighed by the fact that Cer- 
vera's fleet would have had open to it the chance of itself 
going through the canal, and thence sailing to attack Dewey 
or to menace our stripped Pacific Coast. If that canal is open 
to the warships of an enemy, it is a menace to us in time of 
war- it is an added burden, an additional strategic point to be 
guarded by our fleet. If fortified by us, it becomes one of the 
most potent sources of our possible sea strength. Unless so 
fortified it strengthens against us every nation whose fleet is 
larger than our own. One prime reason for fortifying our 
great seaports, is to unfetter our fleet, to release it for offen- 
sive purposes; and the proposed canal would fetter it again, 
for our fleet would have to watch it, and therefore do the work 
which a fort should do; and what it could do much better. 

Secondly, as to the Monroe Doctrine. If we invite foreign 
powers to a joint ownership, a joint guarantee, of what so 
vitally concerns us but a little way from our borders, how can 
we possibly object to similar joint action, say in Southern 
Brazil or Argentina, where our interests are so much less 
evident? If Germany has the same right that we have in the 
canal across Central America, why not in the partition of 
any part of Southern America? To my mind, we should con- 
sistently refuse to all European powers the right to control in 
any shape, any territory in the Western Hemisphere which 
they do not already hold. 

As for existing treaties — I do not admit the "dead hand 
of the treaty-making power in the past. A treaty can always 
be honorably abrogated — though it must never be abrogated 
in dishonest fashion.^ 

Fortunately, Lord Salisbury, the British Prime 

Minister, remained benevolently disposed towards 

1 W. R. Thayer: John Hay, ii, 339-41- 



i82 THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

the Isthmian Canal, and in the following year he 
consented to take up the subject again. A new treaty 
embodying the American amendments and the Brit- 
ish objections was drafted, and passed the Senate a 
few months after Roosevelt became President. Its 
vital provisions were, that it abrogated the Clayton- 
Bulwer Treaty and gave to the United States full 
ownership and control of the proposed canal. 

This was the second illustration of Roosevelt's 
masterfulness in cutting through a diplomatic knot. 
Arrangements for constructing the Canal itself forced 
on him a third display of his dynamic quality which 
resulted in the most hotly discussed act of his career. 

The French Canal Company was glad to sell to 
the American Government its concessions on the 
Isthmus, and as much of the Canal as it had dug, for 
$40,000,000. It had originally bought its concession 
from the Government of Colombia, which owned the 
State of Panama. At first the Colombian rulers 
seemed glad, and they sent an accredited agent. Dr. 
Herran, to Washington, who framed with Secretary 
Hay a treaty satisfactory to both, and believed, by 
Mr. Hay, to represent the sincere intentions of the 
Colombian Government at Bogota. The Colombian 
politicians, however, who were banditti of the Tam- 
many stripe, but as much cruder as Bogota was than 
New York City, suddenly discovered that the trans- 



ROOSEVELT'S FOREIGN POLICY 183 

action might be much more profitable for themselves 
than they had at first suspected. They put off rati- 
fying the treaty, therefore, and warned the French 
Company that they should charge it an additional 
$10,000,000 for the privilege of transferring its con- 
cession to the Americans. The French demurred ; the 
Americans waited. Secretary Hay reminded Dr. 
Herran that the treaty must be signed within a rea- 
sonable time, and intimated that the reasonable 
time would soon be up. 

The Bogotan blackmailers indulged in still wilder 
dreams of avarice ; like the hasheesh-eater, they com- 
pletely lost contact with reality and truth. In one of 
their earlier compacts with the French Company 
they stipulated that, if the Canal were not completed 
by a certain day in 1904, the entire concession and 
undertaking should revert to the Colombian Gov- 
ernment. As it was now September, 1903, it did not 
require the wits of a political bandit to see that, by 
staving off an agreement with the United States for 
a few months, Colombia could get possession of prop- 
erty and privileges which the French were selling to 
the Americans for $40,000,000. So the Colombian 
Parliament adjourned in October, 1903, without 
even taking up the Hay-Herran Treaty. 

Meanwhile the managers of the French Company 
became greatly alarmed at the prospect of losing the 



1 84 THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

sum which the United States had agreed to pay for 
its rights and diggings, and it took steps to avert this 
total loss. The most natural means which occurred 
to it, the means which it adopted, was to incite a 
revolution in the State of Panama. To understand 
the affair truly, the reader must remember that 
Panama had long been the chief source of wealth to 
the Republic of Colombia. The mountain gentry 
who conducted the Colombian Government at 
Bogota treated Panama like a conquered province, 
to be squeezed to the utmost for the benefit of the 
politicians. There was neither community of interest 
nor racial sympathy between the Panamanians and 
the Colombians, and, as it required a journey of fif- 
teen days to go from Panama to the Capital, geo- 
graphy, also, added its sundering influence. Quite 
naturally the Panamanians, in the course of less than 
half a century, had made more than fifty attempts 
to revolt from Colombia and establish their own 
independence. The most illiterate of them could 
understand that, if they were independent, the 
money which they received and passed on to Bogota, 
for the bandits there to spend, would remain in their 
own hands. An appeal to their love of liberty, being 
coupled with so obvious an appeal to their pockets, 
was irresistible. 

Just what devices the French Company employed 



ROOSEVELT'S FOREIGN POLICY 185 
to instigate revolution, can be read in the interesting 
work of M. Bunau-Varilla, one of the most zealous 
officers of the French Company, who had devoted his 
life to achieving the construction of the Trans- 
Isthmian Canal. He was indefatigable, breezy, and 
deliberately indiscreet. He tells much, and what he 
does not tell he leaves you to infer, without risk of 
going astray. Mr. William Nelson Cromwell, of 
New York, the general counsel of the Company, off- 
set Varilla's loquacity by a proper amount of reti- 
cence. Bunau-Varilla hurried over from Paris, and 
had interviews with President Roosevelt and Secre- 
tary Hay, but could not draw them into his conspir- 
acy. The President told him that, at the utmost, he 
would only order American warships, which were on 
the Panama coast, to prevent any attack from out- 
side which might cause bloodshed and interfere with 
the undisturbed passage across the Isthmus, a duty 
which the United States was pledged to perform. 

The French zealot-conspirator freely announced 
that the revolution at Panama would take place at 
noon on November 3d. It did take place as scheduled 
without violence, and with only the accidental killing 
of a Chinaman and a dog. The next day the Revolu- 
tionists proclaimed the Republic of Panama, and on 
November 6th the United States formally recognized 
lU existence and prepared to open diplomatic rela- 



1 86 THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

tions with it. The Colombian Government had tried 
to send troops to put down the rebellion, but the 
American warships, obeying their orders to prevent 
bloodshed or fighting, would not allow the troops to 
land. 

As soon as the news of these events reached 
Bogota, the halls of Parliament there resounded with 
wailing and gnashing of teeth and protests, and 
curses on the perfidious Americans who had connived 
to free the Panamanians in their struggle for liberty. 
The mountain bandits perceived that they had over- 
reached themselves. Instead of the $10,000,000 
which their envoy Herran had deemed sufficient; 
instead of the $40,000,000 and more, which their 
greed had counted on in 1904, they would receive 
nothing. The Roosevelt Government immediately 
signed a contract with the Republic of Panama, by 
which the United States leased a zone across the 
Isthmus for building, controlling, and operating, the 
Canal. Then the Colombians, in a panic, sent their 
most respectable public man, and formerly their 
President, General Rafael Reyes, to Washington, 
to endeavor to persuade the Government to reverse 
its compact with the Panama Republic. The black- 
mailers were now very humble. Mr. Wayne Mac- 
Veagh, who was counsel for Colombia, told me that 
General Reyes was authorized to accept $8,000,000 



ROOSEVELT'S FOREIGN POLICY 187 

for all the desired concessions, "and," Mr. MacVeagh 
added, "he would have taken five millions, but Hay 
and Roosevelt were so foolish that they would n't 
accept." 

The quick decisions of the Administration in 
Washington, which accompanied the revolution in 
Panama and the recognition of the new Republic, 
were made by Roosevelt. I have seen no evidence 
that Mr. Hay was consulted at the last moment. 
When the stroke was accomplished, many good per- 
sons in the United States denounced it. They felt 
that it was high-handed and brutal, and that it 
fixed an indelible blot on the national conscience. 
Many of them did not know of the long-drawn-out 
negotiations and of the Colombian premeditated de- 
ceit; others knew, but overlooked or condoned. They 
upheld strictly the letter of the law. They could not 
deny that the purpose of the Colombians was to 
exact blackmail. It meant nothing to them that 
Herran, the official envoy, had drawn up and signed 
a treaty under instructions from Marroquin, the 
President of Colombia, and its virtual dictator, who, 
having approved of the orders under which Herran 
acted, could easily have required the Colombian 
Parliament to ratify the treaty. Perfervidly pious 
critics of Roosevelt pictured him as a bully without 
conscience, and they blackened his aid in freeing the 



i88 THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

Panamanians by calling it "the Rape of Panama." 
Some of these persons even boldly asserted that 
John Hay died of remorse over his part in this wicked 
deed. The fact is that John Hay died of a disease 
which was not caused by remorse, and that, as long 
as he lived, he publicly referred to the Panama affair 
as that in which he took the greatest pride. It is only 
in the old Sunday-School stories that Providence 
punishes wrongdoing with such commendable swift- 
ness, and causes the naughty boy who goes skating 
on Sunday to drown forthwith; in real life the "mills 
of God grind slowly." Roosevelt always regarded 
with equal satisfaction the decision by which the 
Panama Canal was achieved and the high needs of 
civilization and the protection of the United States 
were attended to. He lived long enough to condemn 
the proposal of some of our morbidly conscientious 
people, hypnotized by the same old crafty Colom- 
bians, to pay Colombia a gratuity five times greater 
than that which General Reyes would have thank- 
fully received in December, 1903. 

Persons of different temperaments, but of equal 
patriotism and sincerity, will probably pass different 
verdicts on this incident for a long time to com.e. 
Mr. Leupp quotes a member of Roosevelt's Admin- 
istration as stating four alternative courses the 
President might have followed. First, he might have 



ROOSEVELT'S FOREIGN POLICY 189 
let matters drift until Congress met, and then sent 
a message on the subject, shifting the responsibility 
from his own shoulders to those of the Congressmen. 
Secondly, he might have put down the rebellion and 
restored Panama to Colombia; but this would have 
been to subject them against their will to a foreign 
enemy — an enormity the Anti- Imperialists were 
still decrying in our holding the Philippines against 
the will of their inhabitants. Thirdly, he might have 
withdrawn American warships and left Colombia to 
fight it out with the Panamanians — but this would 
have involved bloodshed, tumult, and interruption 
of transit across the Isthmus, which the United 
States, by the agreement of 1846, were bound to 
prevent. Finally, he might recognize any de facto 
government ready and willing to transact business 
— and this he did.^ 

That the Colombian politicians, who repudiated 
the treaty Herran had framed, were blackmailers of 
the lowest sort, is as indisputable as is the fact that 
whoever begins to compromise with a blackmailer is 
lured farther and farther into a bog until he is finally 
swallowed up. Americans should know also that dur- 
ing the summer and autumn of 1903, German agents 
were busy in Bogota, and that, since German capital- 
ists had openly announced their desire to buy up 
* Leupp, lo-ii. 



190 THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

the French Company's concession, we may guess 
that they did not urge Colombia to fulfill her obliga- 
tion to the United States. 

Many years later I discussed the transaction with 
Mr. Roosevelt, chaffing him with being a wicked 
conspirator. He laughed, and replied: "What was the 
use? The other fellows in Paris and New York had 
taken all the risk and were doing all the work. In- 
stead of trying to run a parallel conspiracy, I had 
only to sit still and profit by their plot — if it suc- 
ceeded." He said also that he had intended issuing a 
public announcement that, if Colombia by a given 
date refused to come to terms, he would seize the 
Canal Zone in behalf of civilization. I told him I 
rather wished that he had accomplished his purpose 
in that way; but he answered that events matured 
too quickly, and that, in any case, where swift action 
was required, the Executive and not Congress must 
decide. 



CHAPTER XII 

THE GREAT CRUSADE AT HOME 

THESE early diplomatic settlements in Roose- 
velt's Administration showed the world that 
the United States now had a President who did not 
seek quarrels, but who was not afraid of them, who 
never bluffed, because — unlike President Cleveland 
and Secretary Olney with their Venezuela Message 
[^ J 8^5 — he never made a threat which he could 
not back up at the moment. There was no longer a 
bed of roses to stifle opposition; whosoever hit at 
the United States would encounter a ban-ier of long, 
sharp, and unbending thorns. 

These particular achievements in foreign affairs, 
and others which I shall mention later, gave Roose- 
velt and his country great prestige abroad and the 
admiration of a large part of his countrymen. But 
his truly significant work related to home affairs. 
Now at last, he, the young David of the New Ideals, 
was to go forth, if he dared, and do battle with the 
Goliath of Conservatism. With him there was no 
question of daring. He had been waiting for twenty 
years for this opportunity. Such a conflict or duel has 
rarely been witnessed, because it rarely happens that 



192 THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

an individual who consciously embodies the aims of 
an epoch is accepted by that epoch as its champion. 
Looking backward, we see that Abraham Lincoln 
typified the ideals of Freedom and Union which were 
the supreme issues of his time; but this recognition 
has come chiefly since his death. In like fashion I 
believe that Roosevelt's significance as a champion 
of Liberty, little suspected by his contemporaries 
and hardly surmised even now, will require the lapse 
of another generation before it is universally under- 
stood. 

Many obvious reasons account for this. Most of 
the internal reforms which Roosevelt struggled for 
lacked the dramatic quality or the picturesqueness 
which appeals to average, dull, unimaginative men 
and women. The heroism of the medical experi- 
menter who voluntarily contracts yellow fever and 
dies — and thereby saves myriads of lives — makes 
little impression on the ordinary person, who can be 
roused only by stories of battle heroism, of soldiers 
and torpedoes. And yet the attacks which Roosevelt 
made, while they did not involve death, called for 
the highest kind of civic courage and fortitude. 

Then again a political combat with tongues and 
arguments seldom conveys the impression that 
through it irrevocable Fate gives its decision to the 
same extent that a contest by swords and volleys 



THE GREAT CRUSADE AT HOME 193 

does. Political campaigns are a competition of 
parties and only the immediate partisans who direct 
and carry on the fight, grow very hot. The great 
majority of a party is not fanatical, and a citizen who 
has witnessed many elections, some for and some 
against him, comes instinctively to feel that whoever 
wins the country is safe. He discounts the cries of 
alarm and the abuse by opponents. And only in his 
most expansive moments does he flatter himself that 
his party really represents the State. The Republican 
Party, through which President Roosevelt had to 
work, was by no means an ideal instrument. He be- 
lieved in Republicanism, with a faith only less de- 
voted than that with which he embraced the fun- 
damental duties and spiritual facts of life. But the 
Republicanism which he revered must be interpreted 
by himself; and the party which bore the name 
Republican was split into several sections, mutually 
discordant if not actually hostile. It seems no exag- 
geration to say that the underlying motive of the 
majority of the Republican Party during Roosevelt's 
Presidency was to uphold Privilege, just as much as 
the underlying purpose of the great Whig Party in 
England in the eighteenth century was to uphold 
Aristocracy. Roosevelt's purpose, on the contrary, 
was to clip the arrogance of Privilege based on Pluto- 
cracy. To achieve this he must, in some measure, 



194 THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

compel the party of Plutocracy to help him. I speak, 
so far as possible, as a historian, — and not as a par- 
tisan, — who recognizes that the rise of a Plutocracy 
was the inevitable result of the amassing, during a 
generation, of unprecedented wealth, and that, in 
a Republic governed by parties, the all-dominant 
Plutocracy would naturally see to it that the all- 
dominant party which governed the country and 
made its laws should be plutocratic. If the spheres 
in which Plutocracy made most of its money had 
been Democratic, then the Democratic Party would 
have served the Plutocracy. As it was, in the prac- 
tical relation between the parties, the Democrats got 
their share of the spoils, and the methods of a Demo- 
cratic Boss, like Senator Gorman, did not differ from 
those of a Republican Boss, like Senator Aldrich. 

Roosevelt relied implicitly on justice and common 
sense. He held, as firmly as Lincoln had held, to the 
inherent rightmindedness of the "plain people." And 
however fierce and formidable the opposition to his 
policies might be in Congress, he trusted that, if he 
could make clear to the average voters of the coun- 
try what he was aiming at, they would support him. 
And they did support him. Time after time, when the 
Interests appeared to be on the point of crushing 
his reform, the people rose and coerced Congress 
into adopting it. I would not imply that Roosevelt 



THE GREAT CRUSADE AT HOME 195 

assumed an autocratic manner in this warfare. He 
left no doubt of his intention, still less could he dis- 
guise the fact of his tremendous personal vigor; but 
rather than threaten he tried to persuade; he was 
good-natured to everybody, he explained the reason- 
ableness of his measures; and only when the satraps 
of Plutocracy so far lost their discretion as to threaten 
him, did he bluntly challenge them to do their 
worst. 

The Interests had undeniably reached such pro- 
portions that unless they were chastened and con- 
trolled, the freedom of the Republic could not sur- 
vive. And yet, in justice, we must recall that when 
they grew up in the day of small things, they were 
beneficial ; their founders had no idea of their becom- 
ing a menace to the Nation. The man who built the 
first cotton-mill in his section, or started the first 
iron-furnace, or laid the first stretch of railroad, was 
rightly hailed as a benefactor; and he could not fore- 
see that the time would come when his mill, entering 
into a business combination with a hundred other 
mills in different parts of the country, would be 
merged in a monopoly to strangle competition in 
cotton manufacture. Likewise, the first stretch of 
railroad joined another, and this a third, and so on, 
until there had arisen a vast railway system under 
a single management from New York to San Fran- 



196 THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

CISCO. Now, while these colossal monopolies had 
grown up so naturally, responding to the wonderful 
expansion of the population they served, the laws 
and regulations which applied to them, having been 
framed in the days when they were young and small 
and harmless, still obtained. The clothes made for the 
little boy would not do for the giant man. I have 
heard a lawyer complain that statutes, which barely 
sufficed when travel and transportation went by 
stage-coach, were stretched to fit the needs of the 
public in its relation with transcontinental railroads. 
This is an exaggeration, no doubt, but it points 
towards truth. The Big Interests were so swollen 
that they went ahead on their own affairs and paid 
little attention to the community on which they were 
battening. They saw to it that if any laws concerning 
them had to be made by the State Legislatures or by 
Congress, their agents in those bodies should make 
them. A certain Mr. Vanderbilt, the president of one 
of the largest railroad systems in America, a person 
whose other gems of wit and wisdom have not been 
recorded, achieved such immortality, as it is, by re- 
marking, "The public be damned." Probably the 
president and directors of a score of other monopo- 
lies would have heartily echoed that impolitic and 
petulant display of arrogance. Impolitic the exclama- 
tion was, because the American public had already 



THE GREAT CRUSADE AT HOME 197 

begun to feel that the Big Interests were putting 
its freedom in jeopardy, and it was beginning to call 
for laws which should reduce the power of those in- 
terests. 

As early as 1887 the Interstate Commerce Act was 
passed, the earliest considerable attempt to regulate 
rates and traffic. Then followed anti- trust laws which 
aimed at the suppression of "pools," in which many 
large producers or manufacturers combined to sell 
their staples at a uniform price, a practice which in- 
evitably set up monopolies. The "Trusts" were to 
these what the elephant is to a colt. When the United 
States Steel Corporation was tormed by uniting 
eleven large steel plants, with an aggregate capital of 
$1,100,000,000, the American people had an inkling 
of the magnitude to which Trusts might swell. In 
like fashion when the Northern Pacific and the Great 
Northern Railroads found a legal impediment to 
their being run by one management, they got round 
the law by organizing the Northern Securities Com- 
pany, which was to hold the stocks and bonds of 
both railroads. And so of many other important 
industrial and transportation mergers. The most 
powerful financial promoters of the country, led by 
Mr. J. Pierpont Morgan, were busy setting up these 
combinations on a large scale and the keenest cor- 
poration lawyers spent their energy and wits in 



198 THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

framing charters which obeyed the letter of the laws, 
but wholly denied their spirit. 

President Roosevelt worked openly, with a defi- 
nite purpose. First, he would enforce every law on 
the statute book, without exception in favor of any 
individual or company; next, he suggested to Con- 
gress the need of new legislation to resist further 
encroachments by capitalists in the fields where they 
had already been checked; finally, he pointed out 
that Congress must begin at once to protect the 
national resources which had been allowed to go to 
waste, or to be seized and exploited by private con- 
cerns. 

I do not intend to take up in chronological se- 
quence, or in detail, Roosevelt's battles to secure 
proper legislation. To do so would require the dis- 
cussion of legal and constitutional questions, which 
would scarcely fit a sketch like the present. The main 
things to know are the general nature of his reforms 
and his own attitude in conducting the fight. He 
aimed directly at stopping abuses which gave a priv- 
ileged few undue advantage in amassing and distrib- 
uting wealth. The practical result of the laws was to 
spread justice and equality throughout the coun- 
try and to restore thereby the true spirit of De- 
mocracy on which the Founders created the Re- 
public. He fought fairly, but warily, never letting 



THE GREAT CRUSADE AT HOME 199 

slip a point that would tell against his opponents, 
who, it must be said, did not always attack him 
honorably. 

At first, they regarded the President as a head- 
strong young man — he was the youngest who had 
ever sat in the Presidential chair — who wished to 
have his own way in order to show the country that 
he was its leader. They did not see that ideals which 
dated back to his childhood were really shaping his 
acts. He had seen law in the making out West; he 
had seen law, and especially corporation law, In the 
making when he was in the New York Assembly 
and Governor of New York; he knew the devices 
by which the Interests caused laws to be made and 
passed for their special benefit, or evaded inconven- 
ient laws. But he suffered no disillusion as to the 
ideal of Law, the embodiment and organ of Jus- 
tice. Legal quibbles, behind which designing and 
wicked men dodged, nauseated him, and he made 
no pretense of wishing to uphold them. 

The champions of the Interests found out before 
long that the young President was neither head- 
strong nor a mere creature of impulse, but that he 
followed a thoroughly rational system of principles; 
and so they had to abandon the notion that the next 
gust of impulse might blow him over to their side. 
They must take him as he was, and make the best 



200 THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

of it. Now, I must repeat, that, for these gentlemen, 
the very idea that anybody could propose to run 
the American Government, or to organize American 
Society, on any other standard than theirs, seemed 
to them preposterous. The Bourbon nobles in France 
and in Italy were not more amazed when the Revo- 
lutionists proposed to sweep them away than were 
the American Plutocrats of the Rooseveltian era 
when he promoted laws to regulate them. The Bour- 
bon thinks the earth will perish unless Bourbon- 
ism governs it; the American Plutocrat thought 
that America existed simply to enrich him. He 
clung to his rights and privileges with the tenacity 
of a drowning man clinging to a plank, and he de- 
ceived himself into thinking that, in desperately 
trying to save himself and his order, he was saving 
Society. 

Most tragic of all, to one who regards history as 
the revelation of the unfolding of the moral nature 
of mankind, was the fact that these men had not 
the slightest idea that they were living in a moral 
world, or that a new influx of moral inspiration had 
begun to permeate Society in its politics, its busi- 
ness, and its daily conduct. The gi'eat ship Privilege, 
on which they had voyaged with pomp and satis- 
faction, was going down and they knew it not. . 



CHAPTER XIII 

THE TWO ROOSEVELTS 

I DO not wish to paint Roosevelt in one light 
only, and that the most favorable. Had no 
other been shed upon him, his Administration would 
have been too bland for human belief, and life for 
him would have palled. For his inexhaustible en- 
ergy hungered for action. As soon as his judgment 
convinced him that a thing ought to be done he 
set about doing it. Recently, I asked one of the 
most perspicacious members of his Cabinet, "What 
do you consider Theodore's dominant trait?" He 
thought for a while, and then replied, "Combative- 
ness." No doubt the public also, at least while 
Roosevelt was in office, thought of him first as a 
fighter. The idea that he was truculent or pugna- 
cious, that he went about with a chip on his shoul- 
der, that he loved fighting for the sake of fighting, 
was, however, a mistake. During the eight years he 
was President he kept the United States out of war; 
not only that, he settled long-standing causes of 
irritation, such as the dispute over the Alaskan 
Boundary, which might, under provocation, have 
led to war. Even more than this, without striking 



202 THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

a blow, he repelled the persistent attempts of the 
German Emperor to gain a foothold on this conti- 
nent; he repelled those snakelike attacks and forced 
the Imperial Bully, not merely to retreat ignomin- 
iously but to arbitrate. And in foreign affairs, 
Roosevelt shone as a peacemaker. He succeeded in 
persuading the Russian Czar to come to terms 
with the Mikado of Japan. And soon after, when 
the German Emperor threatened to make war on 
France, a letter from Roosevelt to him caused Wil- 
liam to reconsider his brutal plan, and to submit the 
Moroccan dispute to a conference of the Powers at 
Algeciras. 

Instead of the braggart and brawler that his ene- 
mies mispainted him, I saw in Roosevelt, rather, a 
strong man who had taken early to heart Hamlet's 
maxim and had steadfastly practiced it: 

"Rightly to be great 
Is not to stir without great argument, 
But greatly to find quarrel in a straw 
When honour 's at the stake." 

He himself summed up this part of his philosophy 
in a phrase which has become a proverb: "Speak 
softly, but carry a big stick." More than once in his 
later years he quoted this to me, adding, that it was 
precisely because this or that Power knew that he 
carried a big stick, that he was enabled to speak 
softly with effect. 



THE TWO ROOSEVELTS 203 

No man of our time better deserved the Nobel 
Peace Prize than did he. The fallacy that Roosevelt, 
like the proverbial Irishman at Donnybrook Fair, 
had rather fight than eat, spread through the coun- 
try, and indeed throughout the world, and had its 
influence in determining whether men voted for him 
or not. His enemies used it as proof that he was not 
a safe President, but they took means much more 
malignant than this to discredit and destroy him. 
When the Big Interests discovered that they could 
not silence him, they circulated stories of all kinds 
that would have rendered even the archangel Ga- 
briel suspect to some worthy dupes. 

They threw doubts, for instance, on his sanity, 
and one heard that the "Wall Street magnates" em- 
ployed the best alienists in the country to analyze 
everything the President did and said, in the hope 
of accumulating evidence to show that he was too 
unbalanced to be President. Not content with steal- 
ing away his reputation for mental competence, they 
shot into the dark the gravest charges against his 
honor. A single story, still believed, as I know, by 
persons of eminence in their professions, will illus- 
trate this. When one of the great contests between 
the President and the Interests was on, he remem- 
bered that one of their representatives in New York 
had damaging, confidential letters from him. Hear- 



204 THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

ing that these might be produced, Roosevelt tele- 
phoned one of his trusty agents to break open the 
desk of the Captain of Industry where they were 
kept, and to bring them to the White House, before 
ten o'clock the following morning. This was done. 
To believe that the President of the United States 
would engage in a vulgar robbery of the jimmy and 
black-mask sort indicates a degree of credulity which 
even the alienists could hardly have expected to en- 
counter outside of their asylums. It suggests also, 
that Baron Munchausen, like the Wandering Jew 
Ahasuerus, has never died. Does any one suppose 
that the person whose desk was rifled would have 
kept quiet? Or that, if the Interests had had even 
reasonably sure evidence of the President's guilt, 
they would not have published it? To set spies and 
detectives upon him with orders to trail him night 
and day was, according to rumor, an obvious expe- 
dient for his enemies to employ. 

I repeat these stories, not because I believe them, 
but because many persons did, and such gossip, like 
the cruel slanders whispered against President Cleve- 
land years before, gained some credence. Roosevelt 
was so natural, so unguarded, in his speech and ways, 
that he laid himself open to calumny. The delight he 
took in establishing the Ananias Club, and the rapid- 
ity with which he found new members for it, seemed 



THE TWO ROOSEVELTS 205 

to justify strong doubts as to his temper and taste, 
if not as to his judgment. The vehemence of his pub- 
lic speaking, which was caused in part by a physi- 
cal difficulty of utterance — the sequel of his early 
asthmatic trouble — and in part by his extraordi- 
nary vigor, created among some of the hearers who 
did not know him the impression that he must be a 
hard drinker, or that he drank to stimulate his elo- 
quence. After he retired from office, his enemies, in 
order to undermine his further political influence, 
sowed the falsehood that he was a drunkard. I do 
not recall that they ever suggested that he used his 
office for his private profit — there are some things 
too absurd for even malice to suggest — but he 
had reason enough many times to calm himself by 
reflecting that his Uncle Jimmy Bulloch, the best 
of men, believed just such lies, and the most atro- 
cious insinuations, against Mr. Gladstone. 

Of course, nearly all public men have to undergo 
similar virulent defamation. I have heard a well- 
known publicist, a lawyer of ability, argue that both 
George Washington and Abraham Lincoln did not 
escape from what seems now incredible abuse, and 
that they were, nevertheless, the noblest of men and 
peerless patriots ; and then he went on to argue that 
President Woodrow Wilson has been the target of 
similar malignity, and to leave you to conclude that 



206 THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

consequently Wilson is in the same class with Wash- 
ington and Lincoln. If he had put his thesis in a dif- 
ferent form, the publicist might have seen himself, 
as his hearers did, the absurdity of it. Suppose he 
had said, for instance: "In spite of the fact that 
Washington and Lincoln each kept a cow, they were 
both peerless patriots, therefore, as President Wilson 
keeps a cow, he must be a peerless patriot." One 
fears that logic is somewhat neglected even in the 
training of lawyers in our day. 

The commonest charge against Roosevelt, and 
the one which seemed, on the surface at least, to be 
most plausible, was that he was devoured by insatia- 
ble ambition. The critical remarked that wherever 
he went he was always the central figure. The truth 
is, that he could no more help being the central figure 
than a lion could in any gathering of lesser crea- 
tures; the fact that he was Roosevelt decided that. 
He did use the personal pronoun "I," and the pos- 
sessive pronoun "My," with such frequency as to 
irritate good persons who were quite as egotistical 
as he — if that be egotism — but who used such 
modest circumlocutions as "the present writer," or 
"one," to camouflage their self-conceit. Roosevelt 
enjoyed almost all his experiences with equal zest, 
and he expressed his enjoyment without reserve. 
He was quite as well aware of his foibles as his crit- 



THE TWO ROOSEVELTS 207 

ics were, and he made merry over them. Probably 
nobody laughed more heartily than he at the pleas- 
antly humorous remark of one of his boys: "Father 
never likes to go to a wedding or a funeral, because 
he can't be the bride at the wedding or the corpse 
at the funeral." 

Ambition he had, the ambition which every 
healthy-minded man ought to have to deserve the 
good-will and approbation of his fellows. This he 
admitted over and over again, and he made no pre- 
tense of not taking satisfaction from the popularity 
his countrymen showered upon him. In writing to 
a friend that he wished to be a candidate in 1904, 
he distinguished between the case of Lincoln in 1864 
and that of himself and other Presidential candi- 
dates for renomination. In 1864, the crisis was so 
tremendous that Lincoln must have considered that 
chiefly, irrespective of his own hopes : whereas Roose- 
velt in 1904, like Jackson, Grant, Cleveland, and the 
other two-term Presidents, might, without impro- 
priety, look upon reelection as, in a measure, a per- 
sonal tribute. 

One of my purposes in writing this sketch will 
have failed, if I have not made clear the character of 
Roosevelt 's ambition. He could not be happy unless 
\ie were busily at work. If that work were in a public 
office he was all the happier. But the way in which 



208 THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

he accepted one office after another, each unrelated 
to the preceding, was so desultory as to prove that 
he did not begin life with a deep-laid design on the 
Presidency. He got valuable political notoriety as 
an Assemblyman, but that was, as I have so often 
said, because he could not be inconspicuous any- 
where. He took the office of Civil Service Commis- 
sioner, although everybody regarded that as a com- 
monplace field bounded on three sides by political 
oblivion ; and only a dreamer could have supposed 
that his service as Chief Police Commissioner of New 
York City could lead to the White House. Only when 
he became Assistant Secretary of the Navy can he 
be said to have come within striking distance of the 
great target. In enlisting in the Spanish War and 
organizing the Rough Riders, he may well have re- 
flected that military prowess has often favored a Pres- 
idential candidacy; but even here, his sense of patri- 
otic duty and his desire to experience the soldier's life 
were almost indisputably his chief motives. As Gov- 
ernor of New York, however, he could not disguise 
from himself the fact that that position might prove 
again, as it had proved in the case of Cleveland, the 
stepping-stone to the Presidency. On finding, how- 
ever, that Piatt and the Bosses, exasperated by him 
as Governor, wished to get rid of him by making 
him Vice-President, and knowing that in the normal 



THE TWO ROOSEVELTS 209 

course of events a Vice-President never became 
President, he tried to refuse nomination to the lower 
office. And only when he perceived that the masses 
of the people, the country over, and not merely the 
Bosses, insisted on nominating him, did he accept. 
This brief summary of his political progress assuredly 
does not bear out the charge that he was the victim 
of uncontrollable ambition. 

Roosevelt's Ananias Club caught the imagination 
of the country, but not always favorably. Those 
whom he elected into it, for instance, did not relish 
the notoriety. Others thought that it betokened ir- 
ritation in him, and that a man in his high position 
ought not to punish persons who were presumably 
trustworthy by branding them so conspicuously. In 
fact, I suppose, he sometimes applied the brand too 
hastily, under the spur of sudden resentment. The 
most open of men himself, he had no hesitation in 
commenting on anybody or any topic with the 
greatest indiscretion. For he took it for granted that 
even the strangers who heard him would hold his 
remarks as confidential. When, therefore, one of his 
hearers went outside and reported in public what 
the President had said, Roosevelt disavowed it, 
and put the babbler in the Ananias class. What a 
President wishes the public to know, he tells it 
himself. What he utters in private should, in honor, 
be held as confidential. 



210 THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

When I say that Roosevelt was astonishingly 
open, I do not mean that he blurted out everything, 
for he always knew the company with whom he 
talked, and if there were any among them with 
whom it would be imprudent to risk an indiscre- 
tion, he took care to talk "for safety. " With him, a 
secret was a secret, and he could be as silent as an 
unopened Egyptian tomb. Certain diplomatic affairs 
he did not lisp, even to his Secretary of State. So far 
as appears, John Hay knew nothing about the Presi- 
dent's interviews with the German Ambassador 
HoUeben, which forced William H to arbitrate. 
And he sometimes prepared a bill for Congress with- 
out consulting his Cabinet, for fear that the stock- 
jobbers might get wind of it and bull or bear the 
market with the news. 

Before passing on, I must remark that some cases 
of apparent mendacity or inaccuracy on the part 
of a President — especially if he were as voluble 
and busy as Roosevelt — must be attributed to 
forgetfulness or misunderstanding and not to wil- 
ful lying. A person coming from an interview with 
him might construe as a promise the kindly remarks 
with which the President wished to soften a refusal. 
The promise, which was no promise, not being kept, 
the suppliant accused the President of faithlessness 
or falsehood. McKinley, it was said, could say no 



THE TWO ROOSEVELTS 211 

to three different seekers for the same office so 
balmily that each of them went away convinced 
that he was the successful applicant. Yet McKinley 
escaped the charge of mendacity and Roosevelt, who 
deserved it far less, did not. 

In his writings and speeches, Roosevelt uttered 
his opinions so candidly that we need not fall back 
on breaches of confidence to explain why his oppo- 
nents were maddened by them. Plutocrats and mo- 
nopolists might well wince at being called "malefac- 
tors of great wealth," "the wealthy criminal class." 
Such expressions had the virtue, from the point of 
view of rhetoric, of being so descriptive that any- 
body could visualize them. They stung; they shed 
indefinable odium on a whole class; and, no doubt, 
this was just what Roosevelt intended. To many 
critics they seemed cruel, because, instead of al- 
lowing for exceptions, they huddled all plutocrats 
together, the virtuous and the vicious alike. And 
so with the victims of his phrase, "undesirable citi- 
zens." I marvel rather, however, that Roosevelt, 
given his extraordinary talent of flashing epithets 
and the rush of his indignation when he was doing 
battle for a good cause, displayed as much modera- 
tion as he did. Had he been a demagogue, he would 
have roused the masses against the capitalists and 
have goaded them to such a pitch of hatred that 



212 THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

they would have looked to violence, bloodshed, and 
injustice, as the remedy they must apply. 

But Roosevelt was farthest removed from the 
Revolutionists of the vulgar, red-handed class. He 
consecrated his life to prevent Revolution. All his 
action in the conflict between Labor and Capital 
aimed at conciliation. He told the plutocrats their 
defects with brutal frankness, and if he promoted 
laws to curb them, it was because he realized, as 
they did not, that, unless they mended their ways, 
they would bring down upon themselves a Socialist 
avalanche which they could not withstand. What 
set the seal of consecration on his work was his treat- 
ment of Labor with equal justice. Unlike the dema- 
gogue, he did not flatter the "horny-handed sons 
of toil" or obsequiously do the bidding of railroad 
brotherhoods, or pretend that the capitalist had no 
rights, and that all workingmen were good merely 
because they worked. On the contrary, he told them 
that no class was above the law; he warned them 
that if Labor attempted to get its demands by vio- 
lence, he would put it down. He ridiculed the idea 
that honest citizenship depends on the more or 
less money a man has in his pocket. "A man who 
is good enough to shed his blood for his country," 
Roosevelt said in a Fourth-of-July speech at Spring- 
field, lUinois, in 1903, "is good enough to be given 



THE TWO ROOSEVELTS 213 

a square deal afterward. More than that no man is 
entitled to, and less than that no man shall have." 

That phrase, "a square deal," stuck in the hearts 
of the American people. It summed up what they 
regarded as Roosevelt's most characteristic trait. 
He was the man of the square deal, who instinctively 
resented injustice done to those who could not pro- 
tect themselves; the friend of the under dog, the 
companion of the self-reliant and the self-respecting. 
It is under this aspect that Roosevelt seems most 
likely to live in popular history. 

So, from the time he became President, the public 
was divided into believing that there were two Roose- 
velts. His enemies made almost a monster of him, 
denouncing and fearing him as violent, rash, pugna- 
cious, egotistical, ogreish in his mad hatred of Capi- 
tal, and Capitalists condemned him as hypocritical, 
cruel, lying, and vindictive. The other side, how- 
ever, insisted on his courage; he was a fighter, but 
he always fought to defend the weak and to uphold 
the right; he was equally unmoved by Bosses and 
by demagogues ; in his human relations he regarded 
only what a man was, not his class or condition ; he 
had a great-hearted, jovial simplicity; a far-seeing 
and steadfast patriotism; he preached the Square 
Deal and he practiced it; even more than Lincoln 
he was accessible to every one. 



D 



CHAPTER XIV 

THE PRESIDENT AND THE KAISER 

URING the first years of Roosevelt's Admin- 
istration he had to encounter many condi- 
tions which existed rather from the momentum they 
had from the past than from any living vigor of their 
own. It was a time of transition. The group of poli- 
ticians dating from the Civil War was nearly ex- 
tinct, and the leaders who had come to the front 
after 1870 were also much thinned in number, and 
fast dropping off. Washington itself was becoming 
one of the most beautiful cities in the world, with 
its broad avenues, seldom thronged, its circles and 
squares, whose frequenters seemed never busy, its 
spirit of leisure, its suggestion of opulence and ampli- 
tude, and of a not too zealous or disturbing hold 
on reality. You still saw occasionally a tiny cottage 
inhabited by a colored family cuddled up against a 
new and imposing palace, just as you might pass a 
colored mammy on the same sidewalk with a million- 
aire Senator, for the residential section had not yet 
been socially standardized. 

Only a few years before, under President Cleve- 
land, a single telephone sufficed for the White House, 



THE PRESIDENT AND THE KAISER 215 
and as the telephone operator stopped work at six 
o'clock, the President himself or some member of 
his family had to answer calls during the evening. 
A single secretary wrote in long hand most of the 
Presidential correspondence. Examples of similar 
primitiveness might be found almost everywhere, 
and the older generation seemed to imagine that a 
certain slipshod and dozing quality belonged to the 
very idea of Democracy. If you were neatly dressed 
and wide awake, you would inevitably be remarked 
among your fellows; such remark would imply su- 
periority; and to be superior was supposedly to be 
undemocratic. 

Nevertheless this was a time of transition, and the 
vigor which emanated from the young President 
passed like electricity through all lines and has- 
tened the change. He caused the White House to be 
remodeled and fitted on the one hand for social pur- 
poses which required much more spacious accom- 
modation, and on the other for offices in which he 
could conduct the largely increased Presidential 
business. Instead of one telephone there were many 
working night and day, and instead of a single long- 
hand secretary, there were a score of stenographers 
and typists. Before he left Washington he saw a 
vast Union Station erected instead of the over- 
grown shanties at Sixth Street, and he had encour- 



2i6 THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

aged the laying-out of the waste places beyond the 
Capitol, thus adding to the city another and impos- 
ing section. His interest did not stop at politics, nor 
at carrying through the reforms he had at heart. He 
attended with equal keenness and solicitude to ex- 
ternal improvements. 

Now at first, as I have suggested, his chief duty 
was to continue President McKinley's policies, 
which concerned mostly the establishment of our 
insular dependencies, and the readjustment of our 
diplomatic relations. I have described how he closed 
the dispute over the Alaskan Boundary, over our 
joint control with England over the Isthmus of Pan- 
ama, and how he circumvented the attempt of the 
Colombian blackmailers to block our construction 
of the Canal. 

We must now glance at a matter of almost equal 
importance — our relations with Germany. The 
German attack on civilization, which was openly de- 
livered in 1 914, revealed to the world that for twenty 
years before the German Emperor had been secretly 
preparing his mad project of Universal Conquest. 
We see now that he used all sorts of base tools — 
German exchange professors, spies, bribers, conven- 
tional insinuators and corrupters, organizers of pro- 
German sentiment, and of societies of German- 
Americans. So little did he and his lackeys under- 



THE PRESIDENT AND THE KAISER 217 

stand the American spirit that they assumed that 
at the given signal the people of the United States 
would gladly go over to them. He counted on se- 
curing North and South America by commerce and 
corruption, and not by armed force. The reaffirm- 
ation of the Monroe Doctrine by President Cleve- 
land in 1895 seriously troubled him; for he contem- 
plated planting German colonies in Central and 
South America without resistance, but the Monroe 
Doctrine in its latest interpretation forbade him or 
any foreign government from establishing domin- 
ion in either American continent. Still, two things 
comforted him : the Americans were, he thought, a 
loose, happy-go-lucky people, without any consecu- 
tive or deep-laid policy, as foolish republicans must 
be; and next, he knew that he had the most pow- 
erful army in the world, which, if put to the test, 
would crush the undisciplined American militia at 
the first onset. He adopted, therefore, a double 
policy: he pretended openly to be most friendly to 
the Americans; he flattered all of them whom he 
could reach in Berlin, and he directed an effusive 
propaganda in the United States. In secret, how- 
ever, he lost no occasion to harm this country. 
When the Spanish War came in 1898, he tried to 
form a naval coalition of his fleet with those of 
France and England, and it was only the refusal of 



5i8 THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

England to join in it which saved this country from 
disaster. The United States owe Mr. Balfour, who 
at that time controlled the British Foreign Office, 
an eternal debt of gratitude, because it was he who 
replied to the Kaiser's secret temptation: "No: if 
the British fleet takes any part in this war, it will be 
to put itself between the American fleet and those 
of your coalition." 

The Kaiser expressed his real sentiment towards 
the United States in a remark which he made later, 
not expecting that it would reach American ears. 
" If I had had ships enough," he said, " I would have 
taken the x\mericans by the scruff of the neck." As 
it was, he showed his purpose to those who had eyes 
to see it, by ordering the German Squadron under 
Diederichs to go to Manila and take what he could 
there. Fortunately before he could take Manila or 
the Philippines he had to take the American Com- 
modore, George Dewey, and when he discovered 
what sort of a sea-fighter the mountains of Vermont 
had produced in Dewey, he decided not to attack 
him. Perhaps also the fact that the English com- 
mander at iManila, Captain Chichester, stood ready 
to back up Dewey caused Diederichs to back down. 
The true Prussian truculence always oozes out when 
it has not a safe margin of superiority in strength 
on its side. 



THE PRESIDENT AND THE KAISER 219 

The Kaiser was not to be foiled, however, in his 
determination to get a foothold in America. As the 
likelihood that the Panama Canal would be con- 
structed became a certaint>% he redoubled his efforts. 
He tried to buy from a 3klexican Land Company two 
large ports in Lower California for "his personal 
use." These would have given him, of course, con- 
trol over the approach to the Canal from the Pacific. 
Simultaneously he sent a surveying expedition to 
the Caribbean Sea, which found a spacious harbor, 
that might serve as a naval base, on an unoccupied 
island near the main line of vessels approaching the 
Canal from the east, but before he could plant a 
force there, the presence of his surv^eyors was dis- 
covered, and they sailed away. 

He now resorted to a more cunning ruse. The peo- 
ple of Venezuela owed considerable sums to mer- 
chants and bankers in Germany, England, and Italy, 
and the creditors could recover neither their capital 
nor the interest on it. The Kaiser bethought him- 
self of the simple plan of making a naval demonstra- 
tion against the Venezuelans if they did not pay up; 
he would send his troops ashore, occupy the chief 
harbors, and take in the customs. To disguise his 
ulterior motive, he persuaded England and Italy to 
join him in collecting their bill against Venezuela. 
So warships of the three nations appeared off the 



220 THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

Venezuelan coast, and for some time they main- 
tained what they called "A peaceful blockade." 
After a while Secretary Hay pointed out that there 
could be no such thing as a peaceful blockade; that 
a blockade was, by its very nature, an act of war; 
accordingly the blockaders declared a state of bel- 
ligerency between themselves and Venezuela, and 
Germany threatened to bombard the seacoast towns 
unless the debt was settled without further delay. 
President Roosevelt had no illusions as to what 
bombardment and occupation by German troops 
would mean. If a regiment or two of Germans 
once went into garrison at Caracas or Porto Cabello, 
the Kaiser would secure the foothold he craved on 
the American Coast within striking distance of 
the projected Canal, and Venezuela, unable to ward 
off his aggression, would certainly be helpless to 
drive him out. Mr. Roosevelt allowed Mr. Herbert 
W. Bowen, the American Minister to Venezuela, 
to serve as Special Commissioner for Venezuela in 
conducting her negotiations with Germany. He, 
himself, however, took the matter into his own 
hands at Washington. Having sounded England 
and Italy, and learned that they were willing to 
arbitrate, and knowing also that neither of them 
schemed to take territorial payment for their bills, 
he directed his diplomatic attack straight at the 



THE PRESIDENT AND THE KAISER 221 

Kaiser. When the German Ambassador, Dr. von 
Holleben, one of the pompous and ponderous pro- 
fessorial sort of German officials, was calling on him 
at the White House, the President told him to warn 
the Kaiser that unless he consented, within a given 
time — about ten days — to arbitrate the Venezue- 
lan dispute, the American fleet under Admiral Dewey 
would appear off the Venezuelan coast and defend it 
from any attack which the German Squadron might 
attempt to make. Holleben displayed consterna- 
tion; he protested that since his Imperial Master had 
refused to arbitrate, there could be no arbitration. 
His Imperial Master could not change his Imperial 
Mind, and the dutiful servant asked the President 
whether he realized what such a demand meant. The 
President replied calmly that he knew it meant war. 
A week passed, but brought no reply from Berlin; 
then Holleben called again at the White House on 
some unimportant matters; as he turned to go the 
President inquired, "Have you heard from Berlin?" 
"No," said Holleben. "Of course His Imperial Maj- 
esty cannot arbitrate." "Very well, " said Roosevelt, 
"you may think it worth while to cable to Berlin 
that I have changed my mind. I am sending instruc- 
tions to Admiral Dewey to take our fleet to Vene- 
zuela next Monday instead of Tuesday." Holleben 
brought the interview to a close at once and departed 



222 THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

with evident signs of alarm. He returned in less than 
thirty-six hours with relief and satisfaction wTitten 
on his face, as he informed the President, " His Im- 
perial Majesty consents to arbitrate." 

In order to screen the Kaiser's mortification from 
the world, Roosevelt declared that his transaction — 
which only he, the Kaiser, and Holleben knew about 
— should not be made public at the time ; and he 
even went so far, a little later, in speaking on the 
matter as to refer to the German Emperor as a good 
friend and practicer of arbitration. 

Many years later, when Roosevelt and I discussed 
this episode we cast about for reasons to account 
for the Kaiser's sudden back-down. We concluded 
that after the first interview Holleben either did not 
cable to Berlin at all, or he gave the message with 
his own comment that it was all a bluff. After the 
second interview, he consulted Buenz, the German 
Consul-General at New York, who knew Roosevelt 
well and knew also the powerfulness of Dewey's 
fleet. He assured Holleben that the President was not 
bluffing, and that Dewey could blow all the German 
Navy, then in existence, out of the water in half an 
hour. So Holleben sent a hot cablegram to Berlin, and 
Berlin understood that only an immediate answer 
would do. 

Poor, servile, old bureaucrat Holleben! The Kaiser 



THE PRESIDENT AND THE KAISER 223 

soon treated him as he was in the habit of treating 
any of his servile creatures, high or low, who made a 
fiasco. Deceived by the glowing reports which his 
agents in the United States sent to him, the Kaiser 
believed that the time was ripe for a visit by a Hohen- 
zollern, to let off the pent-up enthusiasm of the Ger- 
man-Americans and to stimulate the pro-German 
conspiracy here. Accordingly Prince Henry of Prus- 
sia came over and made a whirlwind trip, as far as 
Chicago; but it was in no sense a royal progress. 
Multitudes flocked to see him out of curiosity, but 
Prince Henry realized, and so did the German kin 
here, that his mission had failed. A scapegoat must 
be found, and apparently HoUeben was the chosen 
victim. 

The Kaiser cabled him to resign and take the next 
day's steamer home, alleging "chronic illness" as an 
excuse. He sailed from Hoboken obediently, and 
there were none so poor as to do him reverence. The 
sycophants who had fawned upon him while he was 
enjoying the Imperial favor as Ambassador took 
care not to be seen waving a farewell to him from the 
pier. Instead of that, they were busy telling over his 
blunders. He had served French instead of German 
champagne at a banquet for Prince Henry, and he had 
allowed the Kaiser's yacht to be christened in French 
champagne. How could such a blunderer satisfy the 



224 THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

diplomatic requirements of the vain and petty Kai- 
ser? And yet! Holleben was utterly devoted and 
willing to grovel in the mud. He even suggested to 
President Roosevelt that at the State Banquet at the 
White House, Prince Henry, as a Hohenzollem, and 
the representative of the Almightiest Kaiser, should 
walk out to dinner first; but there was no discussion, 
for the President replied curtly, "No person living 
precedes the President of the United States in the 
White House." 

Henceforth the Kaiser understood that the United 
States Government, at least as long as Roosevelt 
was President, would repel any attempt by foreign- 
ers to violate the Monroe Doctrine, and set up a nu- 
cleus of foreign power in either North or South Amer- 
ica. He devoted himself all the more earnestly to 
pushing the sly work of peaceful penetration, that 
work of spying and lying in which the German peo- 
ple proved itself easily first. The diabolical propa- 
ganda, aimed not only at undermining the United 
States, at seducing the Irish and other hyphenate 
groups of Americans, but at polluting the Mexicans 
and several of the South American States; and later 
there was a thoroughly organized conspiracy to stir 
up animosity between this country and Japan by 
making the Japanese hate and suspect the Americans, 
and by making the Americans hate and suspect the 



THE PRESIDENT AND THE KAISER 225 

Japanese. I alluded just now to the fact that German 
intrigue was working in Bogotd, and influenced the 
Colombian blackmailers in refusing to sign the Hay- 
Herran Canal Treaty with the United States, and 
peered about in the hope of snapping up the Canal 
rights for Germany. 

Outwardly, during the first decade of the twen- 
tieth century, the Kaiser seemed to be most active 
in interfering in European politics, including those 
of Morocco, in which the French were entangled. In 
1904 the war between Russia and Japan broke out. 
Roosevelt remained strictly neutral towards both 
belligerents, making it evident, however, that either 
or both of them could count on his friendly offices if 
they sought mediation. At the beginning of the war, 
it was generally assumed that the German Kaiser 
shed no tears over the Russian reverses, for the 
weaker Russia became, the less Germany needed to 
fear her as a neighbor. At length, however, when it 
looked as if the Japanese might actually shatter the 
Russian Empire, Germany and the other European 
Powers seemed to have had a common feeling that 
a decided victory by an Asiatic nation like Japan 
would certainly require a readjustment of world poli- 
tics, and might not only put in jeopardy European 
interests and control in Asia, but also raise up against 
Europe what the Kaiser had already advertised as 



226 THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

the Yellow Peril. I have no evidence that President 
Roosevelt shared this anxiety; on the contrary, I 
think that he was not unwilling that a strong Japan 
should exist to prevent the dismemberment of East- 
ern Asia by European land-grabbers. 

By the spring of 1905, both Russia and Japan had 
fought almost to exhaustion. The probability was 
that Russia with her vast population could con- 
tinue to replenish her army. Japan, with great pluck, 
after winning amazing victories, which left her 
weaker and weaker, made no sign of wishing for an 
armistice. Roosevelt, however, on his own motion 
wrote a private letter to the Czar, Nicholas II, and 
sent George Meyer, Ambassador to Italy, with it on 
a special mission to Petrograd. The President urged 
the Czar to consider making peace, since both the 
Russians and the Japanese had nearly fought them- 
selves out, and further warfare would add to the 
losses and burdens, already tremendous, of both peo- 
ple. Probably he hinted also that another disaster in 
the field might cause an outbreak by the Russian 
Revolutionists. I have not seen his letter — perhaps 
a copy of it has escaped, in the Czar's secret archives, 
the violence of the Bolshevists — but I have heard 
him speak about it. I have reason to suppose also 
that he wrote privately to the Kaiser to use his in- 
fluence with the Czar. At any rate, the Czar listened 



THE PRESIDENT AND THE KAISER 227 

to the President's advice, and by one of those diplo- 
matic devices by which both parties saved their dig- 
nity, an armistice was arranged and, in the summer 
of 1905, the Peace was signed. The following year, 
the Trustees of the Nobel Peace Prize recognized 
Roosevelt's large part in stopping the war, by giving 
the Prize to him. 

Meanwhile, the irritation between France and 
Germany had increased to the point where open rup- 
ture was feared. For years Germany had been wait- 
ing for a propitious moment to swoop down on France 
and overwhelm her. The French intrigues in Mo- 
rocco, which were leading visibly to a French Pro- 
tectorate over that country, aroused German resent- 
ment, for the Germans coveted Morocco themselves. 
The Kaiser went so far as to Invite Roosevelt to in- 
terfere with him in Morocco, but this, the President 
replied, was impossible. Probably he was not un- 
willing to have the German Emperor understand 
that, w^hile the United States would interfere with 
all their might to prevent a foreign attack on the 
Monroe Doctrine, they meant to keep their hands 
off in European quarrels. That he also had a clear 
idea of William IPs temperament appears from the 
following opinion which I find in a private letter 
of his at this time: "The Kaiser had weekly pipe 
dreams." 



228 THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

The situation grew very angry, and von Biilow, 
the German Chancellor, did not hide his purpose of 
upholding the German pretensions, even at the cost 
of war. President Roosevelt then wrote — privately 
• — to the Kaiser impressing it upon him that for 
Germany to make war on France would be a crime 
against civilization, and he suggested that a Confer- 
ence of Powers be held to discuss the Moroccan diffi- 
culty, and to agree upon terms for a peaceful ad- 
justment. The Kaiser finally accepted Roosevelt's 
advice, and after a long debate over the prelimina- 
ries, the Conference was held at Algeciras, Spain. 

That Roosevelt understood, or even suspected, the 
great German conspiracy which the Kaiser's hire- 
lings were weaving over the United States is wholly 
improbable. Had he known of any plot he would 
have been the first to hunt it down and crush it. He 
knew in general of the extravagant vaporings of the 
Pan-Germans; but, like most of us, he supposed that 
there was still enough sanity, not to say common 
sense, left in Germany to laugh such follies away. 
Through his intimate friend, Spring-Rice, subse- 
quently the British Ambassador, he had early and 
sound information of the conditions of Germany. He 
watched with curiosity the abnormal expansion of 
the German Fleet. All these things simply confirmed 
his belief that the United States must attend seri- 



THE PRESIDENT AND THE KAISER 229 

ously to the business of making military and naval 
preparations. 

*- Secretary Hay had already secured the recogni- 
tion by the European Powers of the policy of the 
Open Door in China, the year before Roosevelt be- 
came President, but the struggle to maintain that 
policy had to be kept up for several years. On Novem- 
ber 21, 1900, John Hay wrote to Henry Adams: "At 
least we are spared the infamy of an alliance with 
Germany. I would rather, I think, be the dupe of 
China, than chum of the Kaiser. Have you noticed 
how the world will take anything nowadays from 
a German? Biilow said yesterday in substance — 
'We have demanded of China everything we can 
think of. If we think of anything else we will demand 

that, and be d d to you ' — and not a man in the 

world kicks." ^ 

By an adroit move similar to that by which Hay 
had secured the unwilling adherence of the Powers 
to his original proposal of the Open Door, he, with 
Roosevelt's sanction, prevented the German Em- 
peror from carrying out a plan to cut up China and 
divide the slices among the Europeans. 

Equally adroit was Roosevelt's method of dealing 
with the Czar in 1903. Russian mobs ran amuck and 
massacred many Jews in the city of Kishineff. The 

» W. R. Thayer: John Hay, 11, 248. 



230 THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

news of this atrocity reached the outside world 
slowly: when it came, the Jews of western Europe, 
and especially those of the United States, cried out 
in horror, held meetings, drew up protests, and framed 
petitions, asking the Czar to punish the criminals. 
Leading American Jews besought Roosevelt to plead 
their cause before the Czar. As it was well known 
that the Czar would refuse to receive such petitions, 
and would regard himself as insulted by whatever 
nation should lay them before him by official dip- 
lomatic means, the world wondered v/hat Roose- 
velt would do. He took one of his short cuts, and 
chose a way which everybody saw was most obvious 
and most simple, as soon as he had chosen it. He 
sent the petitions to our Ambassador at Petrograd, 
accompanying them with a letter which recited the 
atrocities and grievances. In this letter, which was 
handed to the Russian Secretary of State, our Gov- 
ernment asked whether His Majesty the Czar would 
condescend to receive the petitions. Of course the 
reply was no, but the letter was published in all 
countries, so that the Czar also knew of the peti- 
tions, and of the horrors which called them out. In 
this fashion the former Ranchman and Rough Rider 
outwitted, by what I may call his straightforward 
guile, the crafty diplomats of the Romanoffs. 



CHAPTER XV 

ROOSEVELT AND CONGRESS 

IN a previous chapter I glanced at three or four 
of the principal measures in internal policy which 
Roosevelt took up and fought through, until he 
finally saw them passed by Congress. No other Pres- 
ident, as has been often remarked, kept Congress so 
busy; and, we may add, none of his predecessors (un- 
less it were Lincoln with the legislation required by 
the Civil War) put so many new laws on the national 
statute book. Mr. Charles G. Washburn enumerates 
these acts credited to Roosevelt's seven and a half 
years* administration : "The Elkins Anti-Rebate Law 
applying to railroads; the creation of the Depart- 
ment of Commerce and Labor and the Bureau of 
Corporations; the law authorizing the building of 
the Panama Canal; the Hepburn Bill amending and 
vitalizing the Interstate Commerce Act; the Pure 
Food and Meat Inspection laws; the law creating the 
Bureau of Immigration; the Employers' Liability 
and Safety Appliance Laws, that limited the working 
hours of employees; the law making the Government 
liable for injuries to its employees ; the law forbidding 
child labor in the District of Columbia; thereforma- 



232 THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

tion of the Consular Service; prohibition of cam- 
paign contributions from corporations; the Emer- 
gency Currency Law, which also provided for the 
creation of the Monetary Commission." ^ 

Although the list is by no means complete, it 
shows that Roosevelt's receptive and sleepless mind 
fastened on the full circle of questions which inter- 
ested American life, so far as that is controlled or 
directed by national legislation. Some of the laws 
passed were simply readjustments — new statutes 
on old matters. Other laws were new, embodying the 
first attempt to define the attitude which the courts 
should hold towards new questions which had grown 
suddenly into great importance. The decade which 
had favored the springing-up and amazing expan- 
sion of the Big Interests, had to be followed by the 
decade which framed legislation for regulating and 
curbing these interests. Quite naturally, the monop- 
olists affected did not like to be harnessed or con- 
trolled, and, to put it mildly, they resented the inter- 
ference of the formidable young President whom 
they could neither frighten, inveigle, nor cajole. 

And yet it is as evident to all Americans now, as it 
was to some Americans at the time, that that legis- 
lation had to be passed; because if the monopolists 
had been allowed to go on unrestrained, they would 

1 C. G. Washburn, 128, 129. 



ROOSEVELT AND CONGRESS 233 

either have perverted this Republic into an open Plu- 
tocracy, in which individual liberty and equality be- 
fore the law would have disappeared, or they would 
have hurried on the Social Revolution, the Arma- 
geddon of Labor and Capital, the merciless conflict 
of class with class, which many persons already 
vaguely dreaded, or thought they saw looming like an 
ominous cloud on the horizon. It seems astounding 
that any one should have questioned the necessity of 
setting up regulations. And will not posterity won- 
der, when it learns that only in the first decade of the 
twentieth century did we provide laws against the 
cruel and killing labor of little children, and against 
impure foods and drugs? 

Year after year, the railroads furnished unending 
causes for legislative control. There were the old 
laws which the railroad men tried to evade and which 
the President, as was his duty, insisted on enforcing; 
and still more insistent and spectacular were the new 
problems. Just as three or four hundred years ago the 
most active and vigorous Frenchmen and English- 
men tried to get possession of large tracts of land, or 
even of provinces, and became counts and dukes, 
so the Americans of our generation, who aspired to 
lead the pushing financier class, worked day and 
night to own a railroad. Naturally one railroad did 
not satisfy a man who was bitten by this ambition; 



234 THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

he reached out for several, or even for a transconti- 
nental system. The war for railroad ownership or mo- 
nopoly was waged intensely, and in 1901 it nearly 
plunged the country into a disastrous financial panic. 
Edward H. Harriman, who had only recently been 
regarded as a great power in the struggle for railroad 
supremacy, clashed with James J. Hill, of Minnesota, 
and J. P. Morgan, a New York banker, over the 
Northern Pacific Railroad. Their battle was nomi- 
nally a draw, because Wall Street rushed in and, to 
avert a nation-wide calamity, demanded a truce. 
But Harriman remained, until his death in 1909, the 
railroad czar of the United States, and when he died, 
he was master of twenty-five thousand miles of road, 
chief influencer of fifty thousand more miles, besides 
steamboat companies, banks, and other financial in- 
stitutions. He controlled more money than any other 
American. I summarize these statistics, in order to 
show the reader what sort of a Colossus the President 
of the United States had to do battle with when he un- 
dertook to secure new laws adequate to the control 
of the enormously expanded railway problems. And 
he did succeed, in large measure, in bringing the giant 
corporations to recognize the authority of the Na- 
tion. The decision of the Supreme Court in the North- 
ern Securities case, by which the merger of two or 
more competing roads was declared illegal, put a 



ROOSEVELT AND CONGRESS 235 

stop to the practice of consolidation, which might 
have resulted In the ownership of all the railroads In 
the United States by a single person. Then followed 
the process of "unscrambling the omelet," to use 
J. P. Morgan's phrase, in order to bring the com- 
panies already Illegally merged within the letter of the 
law. Probably a lynx-eyed Investigator might dis- 
cover that In some of the efforts to legalize opera- 
tions in the future, "the voice was Jacob's, but the 
hands were the hands of Esau." 

The laws aimed at regulating transportation, 
rates, and rebates, certainly made for justice, and 
helped to enlighten great corporations as to their 
place In the community and their duties towards 
it. Roosevelt showed that his fearlessness had ap- 
parently no bounds, when in 1907 he caused suit to 
be brought against the Standard Oil Company in 
Indiana — a branch of a monopoly which was popu- 
larly supposed to be above the law — for receiving 
a rebate from a railroad on the petroleum shipped 
by the Company. The judge who tried the case gave 
a verdict In favor of the Government, but another 
judge, to whom appeal was made, reversed the deci- 
sion, and finally at a re-trlal, a third judge dismissed 
the indictment. "Thus," says Mr. Ogg, "a good 
case was lost through judicial blundering." ^ 

* Ogg, 5c. 



236 THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

But the greatest of Roosevelt's works as a legis- 
lator were those which he carried through in the 
fields of conservation and reclamation. He did not 
invent these issues; he was only one of many persons 
who understood their vast importance. He gives full 
credit to Mr. Gifford Pinchot and Mr. F. H. Newell, 
who first laid these subjects before him as matters 
which he as President ought to consider. He had 
himself during his days in the West seen the need of 
irrigating the waste tracts. He was a quick and will- 
ing learner, and in his first message to Congress 
(December i, 1901) he remarked: "The forest and 
water problems are perhaps the most vital internal 
problems of the United States." Years later, in re- 
ferring to this part of his work, he said: 

The Idea that our natural resources were inexhaustible still 
obtained, and there was as yet no real knowledge of their ex- 
tent and condition. The relation of the conservation of na- 
tional resources to the problems of national welfare and na- 
tional efficiency had not yet dawned on the public mind. The 
reclamation of arid public lands in the West was still a matter 
for private enterprise alone ; and our magnificent river system, 
with its superb possibilities for public usefulness, was dealt 
with by the National Government not as a unit, but as a dis- 
connected series of pork-barrel problems, whose only real 
interest was in their effect on the reelection or defeat of a 
Congressman here and there — a theory which, I regret to 
say, still obtains.^ 

1 Autcbicgraphy, p. 430. 



ROOSEVELT AND CONGRESS 237 

The public lands saved mounted to millions of 
acres. The long-standing practice of stealing these 
lands was checked and put a stop to as rapidly as 
possible. Individuals and private companies had 
bought for a song great tracts of national property, 
getting thereby, it might be, the title to mineral de- 
posits worth fabulous sums ; and these persons were 
naturally angry at being deprived of the immense 
fortunes which they had counted on for themselves. 
A company would buy up an entire watershed, 
and control, for its private profit, the water-sup- 
ply of a region. Roosevelt insisted with indisput- 
able logic that the States and Counties ought them- 
selves to own such natural resources and derive an 
income from them. So, too, were the areas restored 
to man's habitation, and to agriculture, by irriga- 
tion, and by reforesting. A company, having no 
object but its own enrichment, would ruthlessly cut 
down a thousand square miles of timber in order to 
convert it into wood pulp for paper, or into lumber 
for building; and the region thus devastated, as if a 
German army had been over it, would be left with- 
out regard to the effect on the climate and the water- 
supply of the surrounding country. Surely this was 
wrong. 

It seems to me as needless now to argue in behalf 
of Roosevelt's legislation for the conservation of 



238 THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

national resources as to argue against cannibalism 
as a practice fit for civilized men. That lawyers of 
repute and Congressmen of reputation should have 
done their utmost, as late as 1906, to obstruct and 
defeat the passage of the Meat Inspection Bill must 
seem incredible to persons of average sanity and con- 
science. If any of those obstructionists still live, they 
do not boast of their performance, nor is it likely 
that their children will exult over this part of the 
paternal record. 

In order not to exaggerate Roosevelt's importance 
in these fundamental reforms, I would repeat that 
he did not originate the idea of many of them. He 
gladly took his cue for conservation from Gifford Pin- 
chot, and for reclamation from F. H. Newell, as I 
have said; the need of inspecting the packing-houses 
which exported meat, from Senator A. J. Beveridge, 
and so on. The vital fact is that these projects got form 
and vigor and publicity, and were pushed through 
Congress, only after Roosevelt took them up. His 
opponents, the packers, the land-robbers, the mine- 
grabbers, the wood-pulp pirates, fought him at every 
point. They appealed to the old law to discredit and 
damn the new. They gave him no quarter, and he 
asked for none because he was bent on securing jus- 
tice, irrespective of persons or private interests. It 
followed, of course, that they watched eagerly fof 



ROOSEVELT AND CONGRESS 239 

any slip which might wreck him, and they thought 
they had found their chance in 1907. 

That was a year of financial upheaval, almost of 
panic, the blame for which the Big Interests tried to 
fasten on the President. It resulted, they said, from 
his attack on Capital and the Corporations. A special 
incident gave plausibility to some of their bitter 
criticism. Messrs. Gary and Frick, of the United 
States Steel Corporation, called on the President, 
and told him that the Tennessee Coal and Iron Com- 
pany was on the verge of bankruptcy, and that, if it 
went under, a general panic would probably ensue. 
To prevent this financial disaster, their Corporation 
was willing to buy up enough of the Tennessee Com- 
pany to save it, but they wished to know whether 
the President would allow the purchase. He told 
them that he could not officially advise them to take 
the action proposed, but that he did not regard it 
as a public duty of his to raise any objection. They 
made the purchase, and the total amount of their 
holdings in the Tennessee Company did not equal 
in value what they had originally held, for the stock 
had greatly shrunk. The Attorney-General subse> 
quently informed the President that he saw no reason 
to prosecute the United States Steel Corporation. 
But the President's enemies did not spare their criti- 
cism. They circulated grave suspicions; they hinted 



240 THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

that, if the whole truth were known, Roosevelt 
would be embarrassed, to say the least. What had 
become of his pretended impartiality when he al- 
lowed one of the great Trusts to do, with impunity, 
that which others were prosecuted for? The public, 
which seldom has the knowledge, or the information, 
necessary for understanding business or financial 
complexities, usually remarks, with the archaic sa- 
pience of a Greek chorus, "There must be some 
fire where there is so much smoke." But the pub- 
lic interest was never seriously roused over the 
Tennessee Coal and Iron affair, and, six years 
later, when a United ^States District Court handed 
down a verdict in which this matter was referred 
to, the public had almost forgotten what it was all 
about. 

The great result from Roosevelt's battle for con- 
servation, which I believe will glorify him, in the 
future, to heroic proportions as a statesman, is that 
where he found wide stretches of desert he left fertile 
States, that he saved from destruction, that he seized 
from the hands of the spoilers rivers and valleys 
which belonged to the people, and that he kept for 
the people mineral lands of untold value. Nor did he 
work for material and sanitary prosperity alone; 
but he worked also for Beauty. He reserved as Na- 
tional Parks for the use and delight of men and 



ROOSEVELT AND CONGRESS 241 

women forever some of the most beautiful regions 
in the United States, and the support he gave to 
these causes urged them forward after he ceased to 
be President. 



CHAPTER XVI 

THE SQUARE DEAL IN ACTION 

HAVING seen briefly how President Roosevelt 
dealt with Capital, let us look even more 
briefly at his dealings with Labor. I think that he 
took the deepest personal satisfaction in fighting the 
criminal rich and the soulless corporations, because 
he regarded them not only as lawbreakers, malefac- 
tors of great wealth, but as despicably mean, in that 
they used their power to oppress the poor and help- 
less classes. The Labor groups when they burst out 
into violence merely responded to the passion which 
men naturally feel at injustice and at suffering; to 
their violence they did not add slyness or legal de- 
ceits. But Roosevelt had no toleration for the Labor 
demagogue, for the walking delegate, and all similar 
parasites, who preyed upon the working classes for 
their own profit, and fomented the irritation of 
Labor and Capital. 

Stronger, however, than his sympathy for any 
individual, and especially for those who suffered 
without redress, was his love of justice. This he put 
in a phrase which he invented and made current, a 



THE SQUARE DEAL IN ACTION 243 

phrase which everybody could understand: "the 
labor unions shall have a square deal, and the cor- 
porations shall have a square deal." At another time 
he expressed the same idea, by saying that the rich 
man should have justice, and that the poor man 
should have justice, and that no man should have 
more or less. 

Time soon brought a test for his devotion to social 
justice. In the summer of 1902 the coal-miners of 
Pennsylvania stopped working. Early in September 
the public awoke with a start to the realization that 
a coal famine threatened the country. In the Eastern 
States, in New York, and Pennsylvania, and in some 
of the Middle Western States, a calamity threatened, 
which would be quite as terrible as the invasion of 
an enemy's army. For not only would lack of fuel 
cause incalculable hardship and distress from cold, 
but it would stop transportation, and all manufac- 
turing by machinery run by coal. The mine operators 
and the miners were at a deadlock. The President 
invited the leaders on both sides to confer with him 
at the White House. They came and found him 
stretched out on an invalid's chair, with one of his 
legs much bandaged, from an accident he had re- 
ceived in a collision at Pittsfield a few weeks before, 
but his mental vigor was unsubdued. John Mitchell 
spoke for the miners. The President urged the quar 



244 THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

relers to come to terms. But the big coal operators 
would not yield. They knew that the distress among 
the mining population was great, and they believed 
that if the authorities would only maintain peace, 
the miners would soon be forced to give in. So the 
meeting broke up and the "coal barons," as the 
newspapers dubbed the operators, quitted with evi- 
dent satisfaction. They felt that they had not only 
repelled the miners again, but virtually put down 
the President for interfering in a matter in which he 
had no legal jurisdiction. 

And, in truth, the laws gave the President of the 
United States no authority to play the role of arbiter 
in a strike. His plain duty was to keep the peace. If 
a strike resulted in violent disorders he could send 
United States troops to quell them, but only in case 
the Governor of the State in which the riots occurred 
declared himself unable, by the State force at his 
command, to keep the peace, and requested assist- 
ance from the President. In the coal strike the Gov- 
ernor of Pennsylvania, for reasons which I need not 
discuss here, refused to call for United States troops, 
and so did the Pennsylvania Legislature. Roosevelt 
acted as a patriotic citizen might act, but being the 
Pi-sident, his interference had immensely greater 
weight than that of any private citizen could have. 
He kr_w the law in the matter, but he believed that 



THE SQUARE DEAL IN ACTION 245 

the popular opinion of the American people would 
back him up. 

In spite of the first rebuff, therefore, he persuaded 
the miners and the operators to agree to the appoint- 
ment of an arbitration commission, and this sug- 
gested a settlement which both contestants accepted. 
It ended the great coal strike of 1902, but it left be- 
hind it much indignation among the American peo- 
ple, who realized for the first time that one of the 
three or four great industries essential to the welfare 
and even to the life itself of the Nation, was in the 
hands of men who preferred their selfish interests to 
those of the Nation. It taught several other lessons 
also; it taught, for instance, that great combinations 
of Labor may be as dangerous as those of Capital, 
and as heedless of everything except their own selfish 
control. It taught that the people of the States and 
of the Nation could not go on forever without taking 
steps to put an end to the already dangerous hos- 
tility between Capital and Labor, and that that end 
must be the establishment of justice for all. An apolo- 
gist of the "coal barons" might have pleaded that 
they held out not merely for their private gain on 
that occasion, but in order to defeat the growing 
menace of Labor. Their stubbornness might turn 
back the rising flood of socialism. 

Respecters of legal precedent, on the other hand, 



246 THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

criticised the President. They acknowledged his good 
intentions, but they pointed out that his extra-legal 
interference set an ominously bad example. And 
some of them would have preferred to go cold all 
winter, and even to have had the quarrel sink into 
civil war, rather than to have had the constitutional 
ideals of the Nation distorted or obscured by the 
President's good-natured endeavor. Roosevelt him- 
self, however, never held this opinion. In 191 5, he 
wrote to Mr. Washburn: " I think the settlement of 
the coal strike was much the most important thing 
I did about Labor, from every standpoint." 

I find an intimate letter of his which dates from 
the time of the conflict itself and gives frankly his 
motives and apology, if we should call it that. He 
admits that his action was not strictly legal, but he 
asks that, if the President of the United States may 
not intervene to prevent a widespread calamity, 
what is his authority worth? If it had been a national 
strike of iron-workers or miners, he would have held 
himself aloof, but the coal strike affected a product 
necessary to the life and health of the people. It was 
easy enough for well-to-do gentlemen to say that 
they had rather go cold and see the fight carried 
through until the strikers submitted, than to have 
legal precedence ignored; for these gentlemen had 
money enough to buy fuel at even an exorbitant 



THE SQUARE DEAL IN ACTION 247 
price, and they would be warm anyway, while the 
great mass of the population froze. I may add that 
it seems more legal than sensible that any official 
chosen to preserve the public welfare and health 
should not be allowed to interpose against persons 
who would destroy both, and may stir only after 
the destroyers have caused the catastrophe they 

aimed at. 

Roosevelt's action in the great coal strike not only 
averted the danger, but it also gave Labor means of 
judging him fairly. Every demagogue, from the days 
of Cleon down, has talked glibly in behalf of the 
downtrodden or unjustly treated working-men, and 
we might suppose that the demagogue has acquired 
enlargement of the heart, owing to his overpowering 
sympathy with Labor. But the questions we have to 
ask about demagogues are two: Is he sincere? Is he 

wise? 

Sincerity alone has been rather too much exalted 
as an excuse for the follies and crimes of fanatics and 
zealots, blatherskites and cranks. Some of our "lu- 
natic fringe" of reformers have been heard to palli- 
ate the Huns' atrocities in Belgium, by the plea : " Ah, 
but they were so perfectly sincere!" Sincerity alone, 
therefore, is not enough; it must be wise or it may 
be diabolical. Now Roosevelt was both sincere and 
wise. He left no doubt in the strikers' minds that he 



248 THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

sympathized with their sufferings and grievances 
and with their attempts to better their condition, 
so far as this could be achieved without violence, 
and without leaving a permanent state of war be- 
tween Labor and Capital. In a word, he did not aim 
at merely patching up a temporary peace, but at 
finding, and when found, applying, a remedy to the 
deep-rooted causes of the quarrel. 

In his first message to Congress, the new President 
said: "The most vital problem with which this coun- 
try, and, for that matter, the whole civilized world, 
has to deal, is the problem which has for one side 
the betterment of social conditions, moral and 
physical, in large cities, and for another side the 
effort to deal with that tangle of far-reaching ques- 
tions which we group together when we speak of 
'labor.'" 

By his settlement of the coal strike, Roosevelt 
showed the workers that he would practice towards 
them the justice which he preached, but this did not 
mean that he would be unjust towards the capital- 
ises. They, too, should have justice, and they had it. 
He never intended to coddle laborers or to make 
them feel that, having a grievance, as they alleged, 
they must be specially favored. Since Labor is, or 
should be, common to all men, Roosevelt believed 
that every laborer, whether farmer or mechanic, 



THE SQUARE DEAL IN ACTION 249 

employer or employee, merchant or financier, should 
stand erect and look every other man straight in the 
eyes, and neither look up nor down, but with level 
gaze, fearless, uncringing, uncondescending. The 
laws he proposed, the adjustments he arranged, had 
the self-respect, the dignity, of the individual, for 
their aim. He knew that nothing could be more dan- 
gerous to the public, or more harmful to the laboring 
class itself, than to make of it a privileged class, 
absolved from the obligations, and even from the 
laws, which bound the rest of the community. By 
this ideal he set a great gulf between himself and the 
demagogues who fawned upon Labor and corrupted 
it by granting its unjust demands. 

He had always present before him a vision of the 
sacred Oneness of the body politic. This made him 
the greatest of modem Democrats, and the chief 
interpreter, as it seems to me, of the highest ideal of 
American Democracy. The ideal of Oneness can 
never be realized in a State which permits a single 
class to enjoy privileges of Its own at the expense of 
all other classes ; and it makes no difference whether 
this class belongs to the Proletariat or to the Plutoc- 
racy. Equality before the law, and justice, are the 
two eternal instruments for establishing the true 
Democracy. And I do not recall that in any of the 
measures which Roosevelt supported these two vital 



250 THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

principles were violated. The following brief quotas 

tions from later messages summarize his creed : 

In the vast and complicated mechanism of our modern 
civilized life, the dominant note is the note of industrialism, 
and the relations of capital and labor, and especially of 
organized capital and organized labor, to each other, and to 
the public at large, come second in importance only to the 
intimate questions of family life. 

The corporation has come to stay, just as the trade union 
has come to stay. Each can do and has done great good. Each 
should be favored as long as it does good, but each should be 
sharply checked where it acts against law and justice. 

Any one can profess a creed : Theodore Roosevelt 
lived his. 

Nothing better tested his Impartiality than the 
strike of the Federation of Western Miners in 1907. 
Many murders and much violence were attributed 
to this organization and they were charged with 
assassinating Governor Steunenberg of Idaho. Their 
leaders, Moyer and Haywood, were anarchists like 
themselves, and although they professed contempt 
for law, as soon as they were arrested and brought 
up for trial, they clutched at every quibble of the 
law, as drowning men clutch at straws to save them ; 
and, be It said to the glory or shame of the law, it 
furnished enough quibbles, not only to save them 
from the gallows, but to let them loose again on soci- 
ety with the legal whitewash "not guilty" stamped 
upon them. 



THE SQUARE DEAL IN ACTION 251 

Roosevelt understood the great importance of 
punishing these men, and he committed the indiscre- 
tion of classing them with certain big capitalists as 
"undesirable citizens." Members of the Federation 
then wrote him denouncing his attempt to prejudice 
the courts against Moyer and Haywood, and they 
resented that their leaders should be coupled with 
Harriman and other big capitalists as "undesirable 
citizens." This gave the President the opportunity 
to reply that such criticism did not come appropri- 
ately from the Federation; for they and their sup- 
porters had got up parades, mass-meetings, and peti- 
tions in favor of Moyer and Haywood and for the 
direct purpose of intimidating the court and jury. 
"You want," he said in substance, "the square deal 
for the defendants only. I want the square deal for 
every one" ; and he added, " It is equally a violation 
of the policy of the square deal for a capitalist to 
protest against denunciation of a capitalist who is 
guilty of wrongdoing and for a labor leader to pro- 
test against the denunciation of a labor leader who 
has been guilty of wrongdoing." ^ 

But Moyer and Haywood, as I have said, escaped 
punishment, and before long Haywood reappeared 
as leader of the Industrial Workers of the World, an 
anarchistic body with a comically inappropriate 

* Autobiography, 531. 



252 THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

name for Its members objected to nothing so much 
as to industry and work. The I.W.W., as they have 
been known for short, have consistently preached 
violence and "action," by which they might take 
for themselves the savings and wealth of others as a 
means to enable them to do no work. And some of 
the recent strikes which have brought the greatest 
misery upon the laborers whom they misled, have 
been directed by I.W.W. leaders. 

"I treated anarchists and bomb-throwing and 
dynamiting gentry precisely as I treated other crim- 
inals," Roosevelt writes: "Murder is murder. It is 
not rendered one whit better by the allegation that 
it is committed on behalf of a cause." ^ I need hardly 
state that the President was as consistently vigilant 
to prevent labor unions from persecuting non-union 
men as he was in upholding the just rights of the 
union. 

Consider what this record of his with Capital and 
Labor really means. The social conditions in the 
United States, owing to the immense expansion in 
the production of wealth — an expansion which in- 
cluded the invention of innumerable machines and 
the application, largely made possible by immigra- 
tion, of millions of laborers — had changed rapidly, 
and had brought pressingly to the front novel and 
* Autobiography, 532. 



THE SQUARE DEAL IN ACTION 253 

gigantic industrial and financial problems. In the 
solution of these problems Justice and Equality must 
not only be regarded, but must play the determining 
part. Now, Justice and Equality were beautiful ab- 
stractions which could be praised by every dema- 
gogue without laying upon him any obligation except 
that of dulcet lip service. Every American, young or 
old, had heard them lauded so unllmitedly that he 
did not trouble himself to inquire whether they were 
facts or not; they were words, sonorous and pleasing 
words, which made his heart throb, and himself feel 
a worthier creature. And then came along a young 
zealot, mighty in physical vigor and moral energy, 
who believed that Justice and Equality were not 
mere abstractions, were not mere words for politi- 
cians and parsons to thrill their audiences by, but 
were realities, duties, which every man in a Democ- 
racy was bound to revere and to make prevail. And 
he urged them with such power of persuasion, such 
tirelessness, such titanic zeal, that he not only con- 
verted the masses of the people to believe in them, 
too, but he also made the legislators of the country 
understand that they must embody these principles 
in the national statute book. He did not originate, 
as I have said, all or most of the reforms, but he gave 
ear to those who first suggested them, and his enthu- 
siasm and support were essential to their adoption. 



254 THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

In order to measure the magnitude of Roosevelt's 
contribution in marking deeply the main principles 
which should govern the New Age, we need only 
remember how little his predecessor, President 
McKinley, a good man with the best intentions, 
either realized that the New Age was at hand, or 
thought it necessary even to outline the principles 
which should guide it; and how little his successor, 
President Taft, a most amiable man, understood 
that the New Age, with the Rooseveltian reforms, 
had come to stay, and could not be swept back by 
actively opposing it or by allowing the Rooseveltian 
ideals to lapse. 



CHAPTER XVII 

ROOSEVELT AT HOME 

ALTHOUGH Theodore Roosevelt was person- 
ally known to more people of the United 
States than any other President has been, and his 
manners and quick responsive cordiality made mul- 
titudes feel, after a brief sight of him, or after shak- 
ing his hand, that they were old acquaintances, he 
maintained during his life a dignified reticence re- 
garding his home and family. But now that he is 
dead and the world craves eagerly, but not irrever- 
ently, to know as much as it can about his many 
sides, I feel that it is not improper to say something 
about that intimate side which was in some respects 
the most characteristic of all. 

Early in the eighties he bought a country place at 
Oyster Bay, Long Island, and on the top of a hill he 
built a spacious house. There was a legend that in 
old times Indian Chiefs used to gather there to hold 
their powwows; at any rate, the name, the Saga- 
mores' Hill, survived them, and this shortened to 
Sagamore Hill he gave to his home. That part of 
Long Island on the north coast overlooking the 
Sound is very attractive; it is a country of hills and 



256 THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

hollows, with groves of tall trees, and open fields for 
farming, and lawns near the house. You look down 
on Oyster Bay which seems to be a small lake shut 
in by the curving shore at the farther end. From the 
house you see the Sound and the hills of Connecticut 
along the horizon. 

After the death of his first wife in February, 1884, 
Roosevelt went West to the Bad Lands of North 
Dakota where he lived two years at Medora, on a 
ranch which he owned, and there he endured the 
hardships and excitements of ranch life at that time ; 
acting as cow-puncher, ranchman, deputy sheriff, or 
hunting big and little game, or writing books and 
articles. In the autumn of 1886, however, having 
been urged to run as candidate for Mayor of New 
York City, he came East again. He made a vigorous 
campaign, but having two opponents against him he 
was beaten. Then he took a trip to Europe where he 
married Miss Edith Kermit Carow, whom he had 
known in New York since childhood, and on their 
return to this country, they settled at Sagamore Hill. 
Two years later, when President Harrison appointed 
Roosevelt a Civil Service Commissioner, they moved 
to Washington. There they lived in a rather small 
house at 1720 Jefferson Place — "modest," one 
might call it, in comparison with the modern palaces 
which had begun to spring up in the National Cap- 



ROOSEVELT AT HOME 257' 

ital; but people go to a house for the sake of Its occu- 
pants and not for its size and upholstery. 

So for almost six years pretty nearly everybody 
worth knowing crossed the Roosevelts' threshold, 
and they themselves quickly took their place in 
Washington society. Roosevelt's humor, his charm, 
his intensity, his approachableness, attracted even 
those who rejected his politics and his party. Bright 
sayings cannot be stifled, and his added to the gayety 
of more than one group. He was too discreet to give 
utterance to them all, but his private letters at that 
time, and always, glistened with his remarks on pub- 
lic characters. He said, for instance, of Senator X, 
whom he knew in Washington : He " looks like Judas, 
but unlike that gentleman, he has no capacity for 

remorse." 

When the Roosevelts returned to New York, where 
he became Police Commissioner in 1895, they made 
their home again at Oyster Bay. This was thirty 
miles by rail from the city, near enough to be easily 
accessible, but far enough away to deter the visits of 
random, curious, undesired callers. Later, when auto- 
mobiles came in, Roosevelt motored to and from 
town. Mrs. Roosevelt looked after the place itself; 
she supervised the farming, and the flower gardens 
were her especial care. The children were now grow- 
ing up, and from the time when they could toddle 



258 THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

they took their place — a very large place — in the 
life of the home. Roosevelt described the intense sat- 
isfaction he had in teaching the boys what his father 
had taught him. As soon as they were large enough, 
they rode their horses, they sailed on the Cove and 
out into the Sound. They played boys' games, and 
through him they learned very young to observe 
nature. In his college days he had intended to be a 
naturalist, and natural history remained his strong- 
est avocation. And so he taught his children to know 
the birds and animals, the trees, plants, and flowers 
of Oyster Bay and its neighborhood. They had their 
pets — Kermit, one of the boys, carried a pet rat in 
his pocket. 

Three things Roosevelt required of them all; 
obedience, manliness, and truthfulness. And I imag- 
ine that all these virtues were taught by affection 
and example, rather than by constant correction. 
For the family was wholly united, they did every- 
thing together; the children had no better fun than 
to accompany their father and mother, and there 
were a dozen or more young cousins and neighbors 
who went out with them too, forming a large, de- 
lighted family for whom "Uncle" or "Cousin Theo- 
dore" was leader and idol. And just as formerly, in 
the long winter nights on his ranch at Medora, he 
used to read aloud to the cowboys and hunters of 



ROOSEVELT AT HOME 259 

what was then the Western Wilderness, so at Saga- 
more Hill, in the days of their childhood, he read or 
told stories to the circle of boys and girls. 

In 1 901, Mr. Roosevelt became President, and for 
seven years and a half his official residence was the 
White House, where he was obliged to spend most 
of the year. But whenever he could steal away for a 
few days he sought rest and recreation at Oyster 
Bay, and there, during the summers, his family 
lived. So far as the changed conditions permitted, 
he did not allow his official duties to interfere with 
his family life. "One of the most wearing things 
about being President," a President once said to me, 
"is the incessant publicity of it. For four years you 
have not a moment to yourself, not a moment of 
privacy." And yet Roosevelt, masterful in so many 
other things, was masterful in this also. Nothing 
interfered with the seclusion of the family breakfast. 
There were no guests, only Mrs. Roosevelt and the 
children, and the simplest of food. At Oyster Bay he 
would often chop trees in the early morning, and 
sometimes, while he was President, he would ride 
before breakfast, but the meal itself was quiet, pri- 
vate, uninterrupted. Then each member of the fam- 
ily would go about his or her work, for idleness had 
no place with them. The President spent his morn- 
ing in attending to his correspondence and dictating 



260 THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

letters, then in receiving persons by appointment, 
and he always reserved time when any American, rich 
or poor, young or old, could speak to him freely. He 
liked to see them all and many were the odd experi- 
ences which he had. He asked one old lady what he 
could do for her. She replied: "Nothing; I came all 
the way from Jacksonville, Florida, just to see what 
a live President looked like. I never saw one before." 
"That's very kind of you," the President replied; 
" persons from up here go all the way to Florida just 
to see a live alligator" — and so he put the visitor 
at her ease. 

Luncheon was a varied meal; sometimes there 
were only two or three guests at it; at other times 
there might be a dozen. It afforded the President an 
opportunity for talking informally with visitors 
whom he wished to see, and not Infrequently it 
brought together round the table a strange, not to 
say a motley, company. 

After luncheon followed more work in his office 
for the President, looking over the letters he had dic- 
tated and signing them, signing documents and hold- 
ing interviews. Later in the afternoon he always 
reserved two hours for a walk or drive with Mrs. 
Roosevelt. Nothing interfered with that. In the sea- 
son he played tennis with some of the large group of 
companions whom he gathered round him, officials 



ROOSEVELT AT HOME 261 

high and low, foreign Ambassadors and Cabinet 
Ministers and younger under-secretaries who were 
popularly known as the "Tennis Cabinet." There 
were fifty or more of them, and that so many should 
have kept their athletic vigor into middle age, and 
even beyond it, spoke well for the physique of the 
men of official Washington at that time. 

At Oyster Bay Roosevelt had instituted "hiking." 
He and the young people and such of the neighbors 
as chose would start from Sagamore Hill and walk 
in a bee-line to a point four or five miles off. The rule 
was that no natural impediment should cause them 
to digress or to stop. So they went through the fields 
and over the fences, across ditches and pools, and 
even clambered up and down a haystack, if one hap- 
pened to be in the way, or through a barnyard. Of 
course they often reached home spattered with mud 
or even drenched to the skin from a plunge into the 
water, but with much fun, a livelier circulation, and 
a hearty appetite to their credit. 

In Washington the President continued this prac- 
tice of hiking, but in a somewhat modified form. His 
favorite resort was Rock Creek, then a wild stream, 
with a good deal of water in it, and here and there 
steep, rocky banks. To be invited by the President 
to go on one of those hikes was regarded as a mark 
of special favor. He indulged in them to test a man's 



262 THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

bodily vigor and endurance, and there were many 
amusing incidents and perhaps more amusing stories 
about them. M. Tardieu, who at that time was pay- 
ing a short visit to this country and was connected 
with the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs, told 
me that the dispatches which the new French Am- 
bassador, M. Jusserand, sent to Paris were full of 
reports on President Roosevelt's personality. The 
Europeans had no definite conception of him at that 
time, and so the sympathetic and much-esteemed 
Ambassador, who still represents France at Wash- 
ington, tried to give his Government information by 
which it could judge for itself what sort of a person 
the President was. What must have been the sur- 
prise in the French Foreign Office when it received 
the following dispatch: (I give the substance, of 
course, because I have not seen the original.) 

'Yesterday,' wrote Ambassador Jusserand, 'President 
Roosevelt invited me to take a promenade with him this 
afternoon at three. I arrived at the White House punctually, 
in afternoon dress and silk hat, as if we were to stroll in the 
Tuileries Garden or in the Champs Elys6es. To my surprise, 
the President soon joined me in a tramping suit, with knicker- 
bockers and thick boots, and soft felt hat, much worn. Two 
or three other gentlemen came, and we started off at what 
seemed to me a breakneck pace, which soon brought us out 
of the city. On reaching the country, the President went pell- 
mell over the fields, following neither road nor path, always 
on, on, straight ahead! I was much winded, but I would not 



ROOSEVELT AT HOME 263 

give In, nor ask him to slow up, because I had the honor of 
La belle France in my heart. At last we came to the bank of a 
stream, rather wide and too deep to be forded. I sighed relief, 
because I thought that now we had reached our goal and 
would rest a moment and catch our breath, before turning 
homeward. But judge of my horror when I saw the President 
unbutton his clothes and heard him say, "We had better 
strip, so as not to wet our things in the Creek." Then I, too, 
for the honor of France, removed my apparel, everything 
except my lavender kid gloves. The President cast an inquir- 
ing look at these as if they, too, must come off, but I quickly 
forestalled any remark by saying, "With your permission, 
Mr. President, I will keep these on, otherwise it would be em- 
barrassing if we should meet ladies." And so we jumped into 
the water and swam across.' 

M. Jusserand has a fine sense of humor and doubt- 
less he has laughed often over this episode, although 
he must have been astonished and irritated when it 
occurred. But it gave Roosevelt exactly what he 
wanted by showing him that the plucky little French- 
man was "game" for anything, and they remained 
firm friends for life. 

Occasionally, one of the guests invited on a hike 
relucted from taking the plunge, and then he was al- 
lowed to go up stream or down and find a crossing 
at a bridge ; but I suspect that his host and the ha- 
bitual hikers instinctively felt a little less regard for 
him after that. General Leonard Wood was one of 
Roosevelt's boon companions on these excursions, 
and, speaking of him, I am reminded of one of the 



264 THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

President's orders which caused a great flurry among 
Army officers in Washington. 

The President learned that many of these officers 
had become soft, physically, through their long resi- 
dence in the city, where an unmilitary life did not 
tend to keep their muscles hard. As a consequence 
these great men of war became easy-going, indolent 
even, better suited to loaf in the armchairs of the 
Metropolitan Club and discuss campaigns and bat- 
tles long ago than to lead troops in the field. "Their 
condition," said Roosevelt, "would have excited 
laughter, had it not been so serious, to think that 
they belonged to the military arm of the Govern- 
ment. A cavalry colonel proved unable to keep his 
horse at a sharp trot for even half a mile when I vis- 
ited his post; a major-general proved afraid even to 
let his horse canter when he went on a ride with us; 
and certain otherwise good men proved as unable to 
walk as if they had been sedentary brokers." After 
consulting Generals Wood and Bell, who were them- 
selves real soldiers at the top of condition, the Presi- 
dent issued orders that the infantry should march 
fifty miles, and the cavalry one hundred, in three 
days. There was an outcry. The newspapers de- 
nounced Roosevelt as a tyrant who followed his 
mere caprices. Some of the officers intrigued with 
Congressmen to nullify the order. But when the 



ROOSEVELT AT HOME 265 

President himself, accompanied by Surgeon-General 
Rixey and two officers, rode more than one hundred 
miles in a single day over the frozen and rutty Vir- 
ginia roads, the objectors could not keep up open 
opposition. Roosevelt adds, ironically, that three 
naval officers who walked the fifty miles in a day, 
were censured for not obeying instructions, and were 
compelled to do the test over again in three days. 

Dinner in the White House was usually a formal 
affair, to which most, if not all the guests, at least, 
were invited some time in advance. There were, of 
course, the official dinners to the foreign diplomats, 
to the justices of the Supreme Court, to the members 
of the Cabinet; ordinarily, they might be described 
as general. The President never forgot those who had 
been his friends at any period of his life. It might 
happen that Bill Sewall, his earliest guide from 
Maine, or a Dakota ranchman, or a New York po- 
liceman, or one of his trusted enthusiasts in a hard- 
fought political campaign, turned up at the White 
House. He was sure to be asked to luncheon or to 
dinner, by the President. And these former chums 
must have felt somewhat embarrassed, if they were 
capable of feeling embarrassment, when they found 
themselves seated beside some of the great ladies of 
Washington. Perhaps Roosevelt himself felt a little 
trepidation as to how the unmkables would mix. He 



266 THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

is reported to have said to one Western cowboy of 
whom he was fond: "Now, Jimmy, don't bring your 
gun along to-night. The British Ambassador is going 
to dine too, and it v/ould n't do for you to pepper the 
floor round his feet with bullets, in order to see a 
tenderfoot dance." 

But those dinners were mainly memorable occa- 
sions, and the guests who attended them heard some 
of the best talk in America at that time, and came 
away with increased wonder for the variety of knowl- 
edge and interest, and for the unceasing charm and 
courtesy of their host, the President. Contrary to the 
opinion of persons who heard him only as a political 
speaker shouting in the open air from the back plat- 
form of his train or in a public square, Roosevelt was 
not only a speaker, he was also a most courteous lis- 
tener. I watched him at little dinners listen not only 
patiently, but with an astonishing simulation of in- 
terest, to very dull persons who usurped the con- 
versation and imagined that they were winning hh 
admiration. Mr. John Morley, who was a guest at 
the White House at election time in 1904, said: 
"The two things in America which seem to me 
most extraordinary are Niagara Falls and President 
Roosevelt." 

Jacob Riis, the most devoted personal follower of 
Roosevelt, gives this as the finest compliment he ever 



ROOSEVELT AT HOME 267 

heard of him. A lady said that she had always been 
looking for some living embodiment of the high 
ideals she had as to what a hero ought to be. "I al- 
ways wanted to make Roosevelt out that," she de- 
clared, " but somehow every time he did something 
that seemed really great it turned out, upon looking 
at it closely, that it was only just the right thing to do."^ 
But at home Roosevelt had affection, not com- 
pliments, whether these were unintentional and sin- 
cere, like that of the lady just quoted, or were thinly 
disguised flattery. And affection was what he most 
craved from his family and nearest friends, and what 
he gave to them without stint. As I have said, he al- 
lowed nothing to interrupt the hours set apart for his 
wife and children while he was at the White House ; 
and at Oyster Bay there was always time for them. 
A typical story is told of the boys coming in upon him 
during a conference with some important visitor, and 
saying reproachfully, "It's long after four o'clock, 
and you promised to go with us at four." "So I did," 
said Roosevelt. And he quickly finished his business 
with the visitor and went. When the children were 
young, he usually saw them at supper and into bed, 
and he talked of the famous pillow fights they had 
with him. House guests at the White House some- 
times unexpectedly caught sight of him crawling in 
1 Riis, 268-69. 



268 THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

the entry near the children's rooms, with two or 
three children riding on his back. Roosevelt's days 
were seldom less than fifteen hours long, and we can 
guess how he regarded the laboring men of today who 
clamor for eight and six, and even fewer hours, as the 
normal period for a day's work. He got up at half- 
past seven and always finished breakfast by nine, 
when what many might call the real work of his day 
began. 

The unimaginative laborer probably supposes that 
most of the duties which fall to an industrious Presi- 
dent are not strictly work at all ; but if any one had 
to meet for an hour and a half every forenoon such 
Congressmen and Senators as chose to call on him, he 
would understand that that was a job involving real 
work, hard work. They came every day with a griev- 
ance, or an appeal, or a suggestion, or a favor to ask, 
and he had to treat each one, not only politely, but 
more or less deferently. Early in his Administration 
I heard it said that he offended some Congressmen by 
denying their requests in so loud a voice that others 
in the room could hear him, and this seemed to some 
a humiliation. President McKinley, on the other 
hand, they said, lowered his voice, and spoke so 
softly and sweetly that even his refusal did not jar 
on his visitor, and was not heard at all by the by- 
standers. If this happened, I suspect it was because 



ROOSEVELT AT HOME 269 

Roosevelt spoke rather explosively and had a habit 
of emphasis, and not because he wished in any- 
way to send his petitioner's rebuff through the 
room. 

Nor was the hour which followed this, when he re- 
ceived general callers, less wearing. As these persons 
came from all parts of the Union, so they were of all 
sorts and temperaments. Here was a worthy citizen 
from Colorado who, on the strength of having once 
heard the President make a public speech in Denver, 
claimed immediate friendship with him. Then might 
come an old lady from Georgia, who remembered his 
mother's people there, or the lady from Jacksonville, 
Florida, of whom I have already spoken. Once a lit- 
tle boy, who was almost lost in the crush of grown-up 
visitors, managed to reach the President. "What can 
I do for you?" the President asked; and the boy told 
how his father had died leaving his mother with a 
large family and no money, and how he was selling 
typewriters to help support her. His mother, he said, 
would be most grateful if the President would accept 
a typewriter from her as a gift. So the President 
told the little fellow to go and sit down until the 
other visitors had passed, and then he would attend 
to him. No doubt, the boy left the White House 
well contented — and richer. 

Roosevelt's official day ended at half-past nine or 



270 THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

ten in the evening, and then, after the family had 
gone to bed, he sat down to read or write, and it was 
long after midnight, sometimes one o'clock, some- 
times much later, before he turned in himself. 

He regarded the preservation of health as a duty; 
and well he might so regard it, because in childhood 
he had been a sickly boy, with apparently only a life 
of invalidism to look forward to. But by sheer will, 
and by going through physical exercises with indom- 
itable perseverance, he had built up his body until he 
was strong enough to engage in all sports and in the 
hardships of Western life and hunting. After he be- 
came President, he allowed nothing to interfere with 
his physical exercise. I have spoken of his long hikes 
and of his vigorous games with members of the Ten- 
nis Cabinet. On many afternoons he would ride for 
two hours or more with Mrs. Roosevelt or some 
friend, and it is a sad commentary on the perpetual 
publicity to which the American people condemn 
their Presidents, that he sometimes was obliged to 
ride off into the country with one of his Cabinet Min- 
isters in order to be able to discuss public matters in 
private with him. Roosevelt took care to provide 
means for exercise indoors in very stormy weather. 
He had a professional boxer and wrestler come to 
him, and when jiu-jitsu, the Japanese system of 
physical training, was in vogue, he learned some of 



ROOSEVELT AT HOME 271 

its introductory mysteries from one of its foremost 
professors. 

It was in a boxing bout at the White House with 
his teacher that he lost the sight of an eye from a 
blow which injured his eyeball. But he kept this loss 
secret for many years. He had a wide acquaintance 
among professional boxers and even prize-fighters. 
Fitzsimmons, who had been a blacksmith before he en- 
tered the ring, hammered a penholder out of a horse- 
shoe and gave it to the President, a gift which Roose- 
velt greatly prized and showed among his trophies 
at Oyster Bay. John L. Sullivan, perhaps the most 
notorious of the champion prize-fighters of America, 
held Roosevelt in such great esteem that when he 
died his family invited the ex- President to be one of 
the pall-bearers. But Mr. Roosevelt was then too 
sick himself to be able to travel to Boston and serve. 

At Oyster Bay in summer, the President found 
plenty of exercise on the place. It contained some 
eighty acres, part of which was woodland, and there 
were always trees to be chopped. Hay-making, also, 
was an equally severe test of bodily strength, and to 
pitch hay brought every muscle into use. There, too, 
he had water sports, but he always preferred rowing 
to sailing, which was too slow and inactive an exercise 
for him. In old times, rowing used to be the penalty 
to which galley-slaves were condemned, but now it is 



272 THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

commended by athletes as the best of all forms of ex- 
ercise for developing the body and for furnishing 
stimulating competition. 

No President ever lived on better terms with the 
newspaper men than Roosevelt did. He treated them 
all with perfect fairness, according no special favors, 
no "beats," or "scoops" to any one. So they re- 
garded him as "square" ; and further they knew that 
he was a man of his word, not to be trifled with. "It 
is generally supposed," Roosevelt remarked, "that 
newspaper men have no sense of honor, but that is 
not true. If you treat them fairly, they will treat 
you fairly ; and they will keep a secret if you impress 
upon them that it must be kept." 

The great paradox of Roosevelt's character was 
the contrast between its fundamental simplicity and 
its apparent spectacular quality. His acts seemed 
to be unusual, striking, and some uncharitable critics 
thought that he aimed at effect; in truth, however, 
he acted at the moment as the impulse or propriety 
of the moment suggested. There was no premedita- 
tion, no swagger. Dwellers in Berlin noticed that 
after William the Crown Prince became the Kaiser 
William II, he thrust out his chest and adopted a 
rather pompous walk, but there was nothing like 
this in Roosevelt's manner or carriage. In his public 
speaking, he gesticulated incessantly, and in the 



ROOSEVELT AT HOME 273 

difficulty he had in pouring out his words as rapidly 
as the thoughts came to him, he seemed sometimes 
almost to grimace; but this was natural, not studied. 
And so I can easily understand what some one tells 
me who saw him almost daily as President in the 
White House. "Roosevelt," he said, "had an im- 
mense reverence for the Presidential office. He did 
not feel cocky or conceited at being himself President; 
he felt rather the responsibility for dignity which 
the office carried with it, and he was humble. You 
might be as intimate with him as possible, but there 
was a certain line which no one ever crossed. That 
was the line which the office itself drew." 

Roosevelt had that reverence for the great men 
of the past which should stir every heart with a ca- 
pacity for noble things. In the White House he never 
forgot the Presidents who had dwelt there before 
him. "I like to see in my mind's eye," he said to 
Mr. Rhodes, the American historian, "the gaunt 
form of Lincoln stalking through these halls." Dur- 
ing a visit at the White House, Mr. Rhodes watched 
the President at work throughout an entire day and 
set down the points which chiefly struck him. Fore- 
most among these was the lack of leisure which we 
allow our Presidents. They have work to do which is 
more important than that of a railroad manager, or 
the president of the largest business corporation, or 



274 THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

of the leader of the American Bar. They are expected 
to know the pros and cons of each bill brought before 
them to sign so that they can sign it not only intelli- 
gently but justly, and yet thanks to the constant 
intrusion which Americans deem it their right to 
force on the President, he has no time for delibera- 
tion, and, as I have said, Mr. Roosevelt was often 
obliged, when he wished to have an undisturbed con- 
sultation with one of his Cabinet Secretaries, to take 
him off on a long ride. 

"I chanced to be in the President's room," Mr. 
Rhodes continues, "when he dictated the rough 
draft of his famous dispatch to General Chaffee re- 
specting torture in the Philippines. While he was 
dictating, two or three cards were brought in, also 
some books with a request for the President's auto- 
graph, and there were some other interruptions. 
While the dispatch as it went out in its revised form 
could not be improved, a President cannot expect 
to be always so happy in dictating dispatches in the 
midst of distractions. Office work of far-reaching 
importance should be done in the closet. Certainly 
no monarch or minister in Europe does administra- 
tive work under such unfavorable conditions; in- 
deed, this public which exacts so much of the Presi- 
dent's time should in all fairness be considerate in 
its criticism." ^ 

* Rhodes: Historical Essays, 238-39. 



ROOSEVELT AT HOME 275 

To cope in some measure with the vast amount of 
business thrust upon him, Roosevelt had unique en- 
dowments. Other Presidents had been indolent and 
let affairs drift ; he cleared his desk every day. Other 
Presidents felt that they had done their duty if they 
merely dispatched the important business which 
came to them; Roosevelt was always initiating, 
either new legislation or new methods in matters 
which did not concern the Government. One autumn, 
when there was unusual excitement, with recrimina- 
tions in disputes in the college football world, I was 
surprised to receive a large four-page typewritten 
letter, giving his views as to what ought to be done. 
He reorganized the service in the White House, and 
not only that, he had the Executive Mansion itself 
remodeled somewhat according to the original plans 
so as to furnish adequate space for the crowds who 
thronged the official receptions, and, at the other 
end of the building, proper quarters for the stenog- 
raphers, typewriters, and telegraphers required to 
file and dispatch his correspondence. Promptness 
was his watchword, and In cases where it was ex- 
pected, I never knew twenty-four hours to elapse 
before he dictated his reply to a letter. 

The orderliness which he introduced into the 
White House should also be recorded. When I first 
went there in 1882 with a party of Philadelphia 



276 THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

junketers who had an appointment to shake hands 
with President Arthur, as a preliminary to securing 
a fat appropriation to the River and Harbor Bill of 
that year, the White House was treated by the pub- 
lic very much as a common resort. The country' 
owned it: therefore, why should n't any American 
make himself at home in it? I remember that on one 
of the staircases, Dr. Mary Walker (recently dead), 
dressed in what she was pleased to regard as a mascu- 
line costume, was haranguing a group of five or six 
strangers, and here and there in the corridors we 
met other random visitors. Mr. Roosevelt established 
a strict but simple regimen. No one got past the Civil 
War veteran who acted as doorkeeper without 
proper credentials; and it was impossible to reach 
the President himself without first encountering his 
Secretary, Mr. Loeb. 

To the President some persons were, of course, 
privileged. If an old pal from the West, or a Rough 
Rider came, the President did not look at the clock, 
or speed him away. The stor>^ goes that one morning 
Senator CuUom came on a matter of business and 
indeed rather in a hurry. On asking who was "in 
there," and being told that a Rough Rider had been 
with the President for a half-hour, the Senator said, 
"Then there's no hope for me," took his hat, and 
departed. 



ROOSEVELT AT HOME 277 

Although, as I have said, Roosevelt might be as 
intimate and cordial as possible with any visitor, he 
never forgot the dignity which belonged to his office. 
Nor did he forget that as President he was socially 
as well as officially the first person in the Republic. 
In speaking of these social affairs, I must not pass 
over without mention the unfailing help which his 
two sisters gave him at all times. The elder, the wife 
of Admiral William S. Cowles, lived in Washington 
when Roosevelt was Civil Service Commissioner, 
and her house was always in readiness for his use. 
His younger sister, Mrs. Douglas Robinson, lived 
in New York City, and first at No. 422 Madison 
Avenue and later at No. 9 East Sixty-third Street, 
she dispensed hospitality for him and his friends- 
Nothing could have been more convenient. If he 
were at Oyster Bay, it was often impossible to make 
an appointment to meet there persons whom he 
wished to see, but he had merely to telephone to 
Mrs. Robinson, the appointment was made, and the 
interview was held. It was at her house that many of 
the breakfasts with Senator Piatt — those meetings 
which caused so much alarm and suspicion among 
over-righteous reformers — took place while Roose- 
velt was Governor. Mr. Odell nearly always accom- 
panied the Senator, as if he felt afraid to trust the 
astute Boss v/ith the very persuasive young Cover- 



278 THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

nor. Having Mrs. Robinson's house as a shelter, 
Theodore could screen himself from the newspaper 
men. There he could hold private consultations 
which, if they had been referred to in the papers, 
would have caused wild guesses, surmises, and em- 
barrassing remarks. His sisters always rejoiced that, 
with his wonderful generosity of nature, he took 
them often into his political confidence, and lis- 
tened with unfeigned respect to their point of view 
on subjects on which they might even have a slight 
difference of opinion. 

Mr. Charles G. Washburn tells the following story 
to illustrate Roosevelt's faculty of getting to the 
heart of every one whom he knew. When he was 
hunting in Colorado, "he met a cowboy who had 
been with him with the Rough Riders in Cuba. The 
man came up to speak to Roosevelt, and said, ' Mr. 
President, I have been in jail a year for killing a 
gentleman.* 'How did you do it?' asked the Presi- 
dent, meaning to inquire as to the circumstances. 
'Thirty-eight on a forty-five frame,' replied the man, 
thinking that the only interest the President had 
was that of a comrade who wanted to know with 
what kind of a tool the trick was done. Now, I will 
venture to say that to no other President, from 
Washington down to and including Wilson, would 
the man-killer have made that response." ^ 
1 Washburn, 202-03. 



ROOSEVELT AT HOME 279 

I think that all of us will agree with Mr. Wash- 
burn, who adds another story of the same purport, 
and told by Roosevelt himself. 

Another old comrade wrote him from jail in Ari- 
zona: "Dear Colonel: I am in trouble. I shot a lady 
in the eye, but I did not intend to hit the lady; I was 
shooting at my wife." Roosevelt had large charity 
for sinners of this type, but he would not tolerate 
deceit or lying. Thus, when a Congressman made 
charges to him against one of the Wild Western 
appointees whom he accused of drinking and of 
gambling, the President remarked that he had to 
take into consideration the moral standards of the 
section, where a man who gambled or who drank 
was not necessarily an evil person. Then the Con- 
gressman pressed his charges and said that the fellow 
had been in prison for a crime a good many years 
before. This roused Roosevelt, who said, "He never 
told me about that," and he immediately telegraphed 
the accused for an explanation. The man replied that 
the charge was true, whereupon the President at 
once dismissed him, not for gambling or for drinking, 
but for trying to hide the fact that he had once been 
in jail. 

In these days of upheaval, when the most ancient 
institutions and laws are put in question, and 
anarchists and Bolshevists, blind like Samson, wish 



280 THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

to throw down the very pillars on which Civilization 
rests, the Family, the fundamental element of civil- 
ized life, is also violently attacked. All the more 
precious, therefore, will Theodore Roosevelt's exam- 
ple be, as an upholder of the Family. He showed how 
essential it is for the development of the individual 
and as a pattern for Society. Only through the Fam- 
ily can come the deepest joys of life and can the most 
intimate duties be transmuted into joys. As son, as 
husband, as father, as brother, he fulfilled the ideals 
of each of those relations, and, so strong was his 
family affection, that, while still a comparatively 
young man, he drew to him as a patriarch might, not 
only his own children, but his kindred in many de- 
grees. With utter truth he wrote, "I have had the 
happiest home life of any man I have ever known." 
And that, as we who were his friends understood, 
was to him the highest and dearest prize which life 
could bestow. 



I 



CHAPTER XVIII 

HITS AND MISSES 

N this sketch I do not attempt to follow chrono- 
logical order, except in so far as this is necessary 
to make clear the connection between lines of policy, 
or to define the structural growth of character. But 
in Roosevelt's life, as in the lives of all of us, many 
events, sometimes important events, occurred and 
had much notice at the moment and then faded away 
and left no lasting mark. Let us take up a few of these 
which reveal the President from different angles. 

Since the close of the Civil War the Negro Ques- 
tion had brooded over the South. The war emanci- 
pated the Southern negroes and then politics came 
to embitter the question. Partly to gain a political 
advantage, partly as some visionaries believed, to do 
justice, and partly to punish the Southerners, the 
Northern Republicans gave the Southern negroes 
equal political rights with the whites. They even 
handed over the government of some of the States 
to wholly incompetent blacks. In self-defense the 
whites terrorized the blacks through such secret 
organizations as the Ku-Klux Klan, and recovered 
their ascendancy in governing. Later, by such spe- 



282 THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

cious devices as the Grandfathers' Law, they pre- 
vented most of the blacks from voting, and relieved 
themselves of the trouble of maintaining a system 
of intimidation. The real difficulty being social and 
racial, to mix politics with it was to envenom it. 

Roosevelt took a man for what he was without 
regard to race, creed, or color. He held that a negro 
of good manners and education ought to be treated 
as a white man would be treated. He felt keenly the 
sting of ostracism and he believed that if the South- 
ern whites would think as he did on this matter, 
they might the quicker solve the Negro Question 
and establish human If not friendly relations with 
the blacks. 

The negro race at that time had a fine spokesman 
in Booker T. Washington, a man who had been born 
a slave, was educated at the Hampton Institute, 
served as teacher there, and then founded the 
Tuskegee Institute for teaching negroes. He wisely 
saw that the first thing to be done was to teach them 
trades and farming, by which they could earn a liv- 
ing and make themselves useful If not Indispensable 
to the communities in which they settled. He did not 
propose to start off to lift his race by letting them 
imagine that they could blossom into black Shake- 
speares and dusky Raphaels in a single generation. 
He himself was a man of tact, prudence, and sagacity 



HITS AND MISSES 283 

with trained intelligence and a natural gift of 
speaking. 

To him President Roosevelt turned for some sug- 
gestions as to appointing colored persons to offices 
in the South. It happened that on the day appointed 
for a meeting Washington reached the White House 
shortly before luncheon time, and that, as they had 
not finished their conference, Roosevelt asked him 
to stay to luncheon. Washington hesitated politely. 
Roosevelt insisted. They lunched, finished their busi- 
ness, and Washington went away. When this per- 
fectly insignificant fact was published in the papers 
the next morning, the South burst into a storm of 
indignation and abuse. Some of the Southern jour- 
nals saw, in what was a mere routine incident, a ter- 
rible portent, foreboding that Roosevelt planned to 
put the negroes back to control the Southern whites. 
Others alleged the milder motive that he was fishing 
for negro votes. The common type of fire-eaters saw 
in it one of Roosevelt's unpleasant ways of having 
fun by insulting the South. And Southern cartoon- 
ists took an ignoble, feeble retaliation by caricatur- 
ing even Mrs. Roosevelt. 

The President did not reply publicly. As his invi- 
tation to Booker W^ashington was wholly unpremedi- 
tated, he was surprised by the rage which it caused 
among Southerners. But he was clear-sighted enough 



284 THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

to understand that, without intending it, he had 
made a mistake, and this he never repeated. Nothing 
is more elusive than racial antipathy, and we need 
not wonder that a man like Roosevelt who, although 
he was most solicitous not to hurt persons' feelings 
and usually acted, unless he had proof to the con- 
trary, on the assumption that everybody was blessed 
with a modicum of good-will and common sense, 
should not always be able to foresee the strange in- 
consistencies into which the antipathy of the white 
Southerners for the blacks might lead. A little while 
later there was a religious gathering in Washington 
of Protestant-Episcopal ministers. They had a recep- 
tion at the White House. Their own managers made 
out a list of ministers to be invited, and among the 
guests were a negro archdeacon and his wife, and the 
negro rector of a Maryland parish. Although these 
persons attended the reception, the Southern whites 
burst into no frenzy of indignation against the Presi- 
dent. Who could steer safely amid such shoals? ^ The 
truth is that no President since Lincoln had a kind- 
lier feeling towards the South than Roosevelt had. 
He often referred proudly to the fact that his mother 
came from Georgia, and that his two Bulloch uncles 
fought in the Confederate Navy. He wished to bring 
back complete friendship between the sections. But 
* Leupp, 231. 



HITS AND MISSES 285 

he understood the difficulties, as his explanation to 
Mr. James Ford Rhodes, the historian, in 1905, 
amply proved. He agreed fully as to the folly of the 
Congressional scheme of reconstruction based on 
universal negro suffrage, but he begged Mr. Rhodes 
not to forget that the initial folly lay with the South- 
erners themselves. The latter said, quite properly, 
that he did not wonder that much bitterness still re- 
mained in the breasts of the Southern people about 
the carpet-bag negro regime. So it was not to be 
wondered at that in the late sixties much bitterness 
should have remained in the hearts of the Northern- 
ers over the remembrance of the senseless folly and 
wickedness of the Southerners in the early sixties. 
Roosevelt agreed most heartily with those persons 
who felt that it was the presence of the negro which 
made the problem, and that slavery was merely the 
worst possible method of solving it. He held, there- 
fore, that we must condemn, as guilty of doing one of 
the worst deeds which history records, those men who 
tried to break up this Union because they were not 
allowed to bring slavery and the negro into our new 
territory. Every step which followed, from freeing 
the slave to enfranchising him, was due only to the 
North being slowly and reluctantly forced to act by 
the South's persistence In Its folly and wickedness. 
The President could not say these things In pub- 



286 THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

lie because they tended, when coming from a man in 
public place, to embitter people. But Rhodes was 
writing what Roosevelt hoped would prove the great 
permanent history of the period, and he said that it 
would be a misfortune for the country, and especially 
a misfortune for the South, if they were allowed to 
confuse right and wrong in perspective. 

He added that his difficulties with the Southern 
people had come not from the North, but from the 
South. He had never done anything that was not for 
their interest. At present, he added, they were, as a 
whole, speaking well of him. When they would begin 
again to speak ill, he did not know, but in either case 
his duty was equally clear. ^ 

Inviting Booker Washington to the White House 
was a counsel of perfection which we must consider 
one of Roosevelt's misses. Quite different was the 
voyage of the Great Fleet, planned by him and car- 
ried out without hitch or delay. 

We have seen that from his interest in American 
naval history, which began before he left Harvard, 
he came to take a very deep interest in the Navy it- 
self, and when he was Assistant Secretary, he worked 
night and day to complete its preparation for enter- 
ing the Spanish War. From the time he became Presi- 
dent, he urged upon Congress and the country the 

* February 20, 1905. 



HITS AND MISSES 287 

need of maintaining a fleet adequate to ward off any 
dangers to which we might be exposed. In season 
and out of season he preached, with the ardor of a 
propagandist, his gospel that the Navy is the surest 
guarantor of peace which this country possesses. 
By dint of urging he persuaded Congress to consent 
to lay down one battleship of the newest type a year. 
Congress was not so much reluctant as indifferent. 
Even the lesson of the Spanish War failed to teach 
the Nation's law-makers, or the Nation itself, that 
we must have a Navy to protect us if we intended to 
play the role of a World Power. The American people 
instinctively dreaded militarism, and so they resisted 
consenting to naval or military preparations which 
might expand into a great evil such as they saw 
controlling the nations of Europe. 

Nevertheless Roosevelt, as usual, could not be de- 
terred by opposition; and when the Hague Confer- 
ence in 1907, through the veto of Germany, refused 
to limit armaments by sea and land, he warned Con- 
gress that one new battleship a year would not do, 
that they must build four. Meanwhile, he had pushed 
to completion a really formidable American Fleet, 
which assembled in Hampton Roads on December i^ 
1907, and ten days later weighed anchor for parts un- 
known. There were sixteen battleships, commanded 
by Rear Admiral Robley D. Evans. Every ship was 



288 THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

new, having been built since the Spanish War. The 
President and Mrs. Roosevelt and many notables 
reviewed the Fleet from the President's yacht May- 
flower, as it passed out to sea. Later, the country 
learned that the Fleet was to sail round Cape Horn, 
to New Zealand and Australia, up the Pacific to San 
Francisco, then across to Japan, and so steer home- 
ward through the Indian Ocean, the Suez Canal, and 
the Mediterranean to Gibraltar, across the Atlantic, 
and back to Hampton Roads. 

The American public did not quite know what to 
make of this dramatic gesture. Roosevelt's critics 
said, of course, that it was the first overt display of 
his combativeness, and that from this he would go on 
to create a great army and be ready, at the slightest 
provocation, to attack any foreign Power. In fact, 
however, the sending of the Great Fleet, which was 
wholly his project, was designed by him to strengthen 
the prospect of peace for the United States. Through 
it, he gave a concrete illustration of his maxim: 
"Speak softly, but carry a big stick." The Panama 
Canal was then half dug and would be finished in a 
few years. Distant nations thought of this country as 
of a land peopled by dollar-chasers, too absorbed in 
getting rich to think of providing defense for them- 
selves. The fame of Dewey's exploit at Manila Bay 
had ceased to strike wonder among foreign peoples. 



HITS AND MISSES 289 

after they heard how small and almost contemptible, 
judging by the new standards, the Squadron was by 
which he won his victory. Japan, the rising young 
giant of the Orient, felt already strong enough to 
resent any supposed insult from the United States. 
Germany had embarked on her wild naval policy of 
creating a fleet which would soon be able to cope 
with that of England. 

When, however, the Great Fleet steamed into 
Yokohama or Bombay or any other port, it furnished 
a visible evidence of the power of the country from 
which it came. We could not send an army to furnish 
the same object-lesson. But the Fleet must have 
opened the eyes of any foreign Jingoes who supposed 
that they might send over with impunity their bat- 
tleships and attack our ports. In this way it served 
directly to discourage war against us, and accord- 
ingly it was a powerful agent for peace. Spectacular 
the voyage was without question, like so many of 
Roosevelt's acts, but if you analyze it soberly, do you 
not admit that it was the one obvious, simple way by 
which to impress upon an uncertain and rapacious 
world the fact that the United States had man- 
power as well as money-power, and that they were 
prepared to repel all enemies? 

On February 22, 1909, the White Fleet steamed 
back to Hampton Roads and was received by Presi- 



290 THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

dent Roosevelt. It had performed a great moral 
achievement. It had also raised the efficiency of its 
officers and the discipline of its crews to the high- 
est point. There had been no accident; not a scratch 
on any ship. 

"Isn't it magnificent?" said Roosevelt, as he 
toasted the Admirals and Captains in the cabin of 
the Mayflower. "Nobody after this will forget that 
the American coast is on the Pacific as well as on the 
Atlantic." Ten days later he left the White House, 
and after he left, the prestige of the American Fleet 
was slowly frittered away. 

So important is it, if we would form a just esti- 
mate of Roosevelt, to understand his attitude to- 
wards war, that I must refer to the subject briefly 
here. One of the most authoritative observers of in- 
ternational politics now living, a man who has also 
had the best opportunity for studying the chief 
statesmen of our age, wrote me after Roosevelt's 
death: "I deeply grieve with you in the loss of our 
friend. He was an extraordinary man. The only point 
in which I ever found myself seriously differing from 
him was in the value he set upon war. He did not 
seem to realize how great an evil it is, and in how 
many ways, fascinated as he was by the virtues which 
it sometimes called out; but in this respect, also, I 
think his views expanded and mellowed as time 



HITS AND MISSES 291 

went on. His mind was so capacious as to take in 
Old- World affairs in a sense which very few peo- 
ple outside Europe, since Hamilton, have been able 
to do." 

Now the truth is that neither the eminent person 
who wrote this letter, nor many others among us, 
saw as clearly during the first decade of this century 
as Roosevelt saw that war was not a remote possibil- 
ity, but a very real danger. I think that he was al- 
most the first in the United States to feel the menace 
of Germany to the entire world. He knew the strength 
of her army, and when she began to build rapidly a 
powerful navy, he understood that the likelihood of 
her breaking the peace was more than doubled; for 
with the fleet she could at pleasure go up and down 
the seas, picking quarrels as she went. If war came 
on a great scale in Europe, our Republic would 
probably be involved; we should either take sides 
and so have to furnish a contingent, or we should 
restrict our operations to self-defense. In either case 
we must be prepared. 

But Roosevelt recognized also that on the comple- 
tion of the Panama Canal we might be exposed to 
much international friction, and unless we were 
ready to defend the Canal and Its approaches, a For- 
eign Power might easily do it great damage or wrest 
it from us, at least for a time. Here, too, was another 



292 THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

motive for facing the possibility of war. We were 
growing up in almost childish trust in a world filled 
with warlike nations, which regarded war not only as 
the obvious way in which to settle disputes, but as 
the easiest way to seize the territory and the wealth 
of rich neighbors who could not defend themselves. 

This being the condition of life as our country had 
to lead it, we were criminally remiss in not taking 
precautions. But Roosevelt went farther than this; 
he believed that, war or no war, a nation must be able 
to defend itself; so must every individual be. Every 
youth should have sufficient military training to fit 
him to take his place at a moment's notice in the na- 
tional armament. This did not mean the maintenance 
of a large standing army, or the adoption of a soul- 
and character-killing system of militarism like the 
German. It meant giving training to every youth 
who was physically sound which would develop and 
strengthen his body, teach him obedience, and im- 
press upon him his patriotic duty to his country. 

I was among those who, twenty years ago, feared 
that Roosevelt's projects were inspired by Innate 
pugnacity which he could not outgrow. Now, In this 
year of his death, I recognize that he was right, and 
I believe that there is no one, on whom the lesson of 
the Atrocious War has not been lost, who does not 
believe in his gospel of military training, both for its 



HITS AND MISSES 293 

value in promoting physical fitness and health and in 
providing the country with competent defenders. 
Roosevelt detested as much as any one the horrors of 
war, but, as he had too much reason to remind the 
American people shortly before his death, there are 
things worse than war. And when in 1919 President 
Charles W. Eliot becomes the chief advocate of uni- 
versal military training, we need not fear that it is 
synonymous with militarism. 

On one subject — a protective tariff — I think 
that Roosevelt was less satisfactory than on any 
other. At Harvard, in our college days, John Stuart 
Mill's ideas on economics prevailed, and they were 
ably expounded by Charles F. Dunbar, who then 
stood first among American economists. Being a 
consistent Individualist, and believing that liberty 
is a principle which applies to commerce, not less 
than to intellectual and moral freedom. Mill, of 
course, insisted on Free Trade. But after Roosevelt 
joined the Republican Party — in the straw vote 
for President, in 1880, he had voted like a large ma- 
jority of undergraduates for Bayard, a Democrat — 
he adopted Protection as the right principle in theory 
and in practice. The teachings of Alexander Hamil- 
ton, the wonderful spokesman of Federalism, the 
champion of a strong Government which should be 
beneficent because it was unselfish and enlightened 



294 THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

captivated and filled him. In 1886, in his Life of Ben- 
ton, he wrote: "Free traders are apt to look at the 
tariff from a sentimental standpoint; but it is in 
reality a purely business matter and should be de- 
cided solely on grounds of expediency. Political econ- 
omists have pretty generally agreed that protection 
is vicious in theory and harmful in practice; but if 
the majority of the people in interest wish it, and it 
dffects only themselves, there is no earthly reason 
why they should not be allowed to try the experi- 
ment to their heart's content."^ 

Perhaps we ought to infer from this extract that 
Roosevelt, as an historical critic, strove to preserve 
an open mind; as an ardent Republican, however, 
he never wavered in his support of the tariff. Even 
his sense of humor permitted him to swallow with- 
out a smile the demagogue's cant about "infant in- 
dustries," or the raising of the tariff after election 
by the Republicans who had promised to reduce it. 
To those of us who for many years regarded the tariff 
as the dividing line between the parties, his stand 
was most disappointing. And when the head of one 
of the chief Trusts in America cynically blurted out, 
"The Tariff is the mother of Trusts," we hoped that 
Roosevelt, who had then begun his stupendous battle 
with the Trusts, would deal them a staggering blow 
^ Roosevelt: Thomas H. Benton, 67. American Statesmen Series. 



HITS AND MISSES 295 

by shattering the tariff. But, greatly to our chagrin, 
he did nothing. 

His enemies tried to explain his callousness to this 
reform by hinting that he had some personal interest 
at stake, or that he was under obligations to tariff 
magnates. Nothing could be more absurd than these 
innuendoes; from the first of his career to the last, 
no man ever brought proof that he had directly or 
indirectly secured Roosevelt's backing by question- 
able means. And there were times enough when pas- 
sions ran so high that any one who could produce an 
iota of such testimony would have done so. The sim- 
ple fact is, that in looking over the field of important 
questions which Roosevelt believed must be met 
by new legislation, he looked on the tariff as unim- 
portant in comparison with railroads, and conserva- 
tion, and the measures for public health. I think, 
also, that he never studied the question thoroughly; 
he threw over Mill's Individualism early in his public 
career and with it went Mill's political economy. As 
late as December, 1912, after the affronting Payne- 
Aldrich Tariff Act had been passed under his Repub- 
lican successor, I reminded Roosevelt that I had 
never voted for him because I did not approve of 
his tariff policy. To which he replied, almost in the 
words of the Benton extract in 1886, "My dear boy, 
the tariff is only a question of expediency." 



296 THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

In this field also I fear that we must score a miss 
against him. 

Cavour used to say that he did not need to resort 
to craft, which was supposed to be a statesman's 
favorite instrument, he simply told the truth and 
everybody was deceived. Roosevelt might have said 
the same thing. His critics were always on the look- 
out for some ulterior motive, some trick, or cunning 
thrust, in what he did; consequently they misjudged 
him, for he usually did the most direct thing in the 
most direct way. 

The Brownsville Affair proved this. On the night 
of August 13, 1906, several colored soldiers stationed 
at Fort Brown, Texas, stole from their quarters into 
the near-by town of Brownsville and shot up the 
inhabitants, against whom they had a grudge. As 
soon as the news of the outbreak reached the fort, 
the rest of the colored garrison was called out to 
quell it, and the guilty soldiers, under cover of dark- 
ness, joined their companions and were undiscovered. 
Next day the commander began an investigation, 
but as none of the culprits confessed, the President 
discharged nearly all of the three companies. There- 
upon his critics insinuated that Roosevelt had in- 
dulged his race hatred of the blacks; a few years 
before, many of these same critics had accused him 
of wishing to insult the Southern whites by inviting 



HITS AND MISSES 297 

Booker Washington to lunch. The reason for his ac- 
tion with the Brownsville criminals was so clear that 
it did not need to be stated. He intended that every 
soldier or sailor who wore the uniform of the United 
States, be he white, yellow, or black, should not be 
allowed to sully that uniform and go unpunished. 
He felt the stain on the service keenly; in spite of 
denunciation he trusted that the common sense of 
the Nation would eventually uphold him, as it did. 

A few months later he came to Cambridge to 
make his famous "Mollycoddle Speech," and in 
greeting him, three or four of us asked him jokingly, 
"How about Brownsville?" *' Brownsville?" he re- 
plied, laughing; " Brownsville will soon be forgotten, 
but 'Dear Maria' will stick to me all my life." 

This referred to another annoyance which had 
recently bothered him. He had always been used to 
talk among friends about public matters and per- 
sons with amazing unreserve. He took it for granted 
that those to whom he spoke would regard his frank 
remarks as confidential ; being honorable himself, he 
assumed a similar sense of honor in his listeners. 
In one instance, however, he was deceived. Among 
the guests at the White House were a gentleman 
and his wife. The latter was a convert to Roman 
Catholicism, and she had not only all the proverbial 
zeal of a convert, but an amount of indiscretion 



298 THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

which seems incredible in any one. She often led the 
conversation to Roman Catholic subjects, and es- 
pecially to the discussion of who was likely to be the 
next American Cardinal. President Roosevelt had 
great respect for Archbishop Ireland, and he said, 
frankly, that he should be glad to see the red hat go 
to him. The lady's husband was appointed to a for- 
eign Embassy, and they were both soon thrown into 
an Ultramontane atmosphere, where clerical intrigues 
had long furnished one of the chief amusements 
of a vapid and corrupt Court. The lady, who, of 
course, could not have realized the impropriety, 
made known the President's regard for Archbishop 
Ireland. She even had letters to herself beginning 
" Dear Maria," to prove the intimate terms on which 
she and her husband stood with Mr. Roosevelt, and 
to suggest how important a personage she was in his 
estimation. Assured, as she thought, of her influence 
in Washington, she seems also to have aspired to 
equal influence in the Vatican. That would not be 
the first occasion on which Cardinals' hats had been 
bestowed through the benign feminine intercession. 
Reports from Rome were favorable; Archbishop 
Ireland's prospects looked rosy. 

But the post of Cardinal is so eminent that there 
are always several candidates for each vacancy. I do 
not know whether or not it came about through one 



HITS AND MISSES 299 

of Archbishop Ireland's rivals, or through "Dear 
Maria's" own indiscretion, but the fact leaked out 
that President Roosevelt was personally interested 
in Archbishop Ireland's success. That settled the 
Archbishop. The Hierarchy would never consent to 
be influenced by an American President, who was 
also a Protestant. It might take instructions from 
the Emperor of Austria or the King of Spain ; it had 
even allowed the German Kaiser, also a Protestant, 
indirectly but effectually to block the election of 
Cardinal Rampolla to be Pope in 1903; but the hint 
that the Archbishop of St. Paul, Minnesota, might 
be made Cardinal because the American President 
respected him, could not be tolerated. The Presi- 
dent's letters beginning "Dear Maria" went gayly 
through the newspapers of the world, and the man 
in the street everywhere wondered how Roosevelt 
could have been so indiscreet as to have trusted so 
imprudent a zealot. " Dear Maria" and her husband 
were recalled from their Embassy and put out of 
reach of committing further indiscretions of that 
sort. Archbishop Ireland never became Cardinal. 
In spite of the President's forebodings, the "Dear 
Maria" incident did not cling to him all his life, but 
sank into oblivion, while the world, busied with 
matters of real importance, rushed on towards a 
great catastrophe. Proofs that a man or a woman 



300 THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

can do very foolish things are so common that " Dear 
Maria" could not win lasting fame by hers. 

I do not think, however, that this experience 
taught Roosevelt reticence. He did not lose his faith 
that a sense of honor was widespread, and would 
silence the tongues of the persons whom he talked to 
in confidence. 

No President ever spoke so openly to newspaper 
men as he did. He told them many a secret with only 
the warning, "Mind, this is private," and none of 
them betrayed him. When he entered the White 
House he gathered all the newspaper men round 
him, and said that no mention was to be made of 
Mrs. Roosevelt, or of any detail of their family life, 
while they lived there. If this rule were broken, he 
would refuse for the rest of his term to allow the 
representative of the paper which published the un- 
warranted report to enter the White House, or to 
receive any of the President's communications. This 
rule also was religiously observed, with the result 
that Mrs. Roosevelt was spared the disgust and in- 
dignity of a vulgar publicity, which had thrown its 
lurid light on more than one "First Lady of the 
Land" in previous administrations, and even on the 
innocent Baby McKee, President Harrison's grand- 
child. 

We cannot too often bear in mind that Theodore 



HITS AND MISSES 301 

Roosevelt never forgot the Oneness of Society. If he 
aimed at correcting an industrial or financial abuse 
by special laws, he knew that this work could be 
partial only. It might promote the health of the 
entire body, but it was not equivalent to sanifying 
that entire body. There was no general remedy. A 
plaster applied to a skin cut does not cure an internal 
disease. But he watched the unexpected effects of 
laws and saw how that influence spread from one 
field to another. 

Roosevelt traced closely the course of Law and 
Custom to their ultimate objects, the family and the 
individual. In discussing the matter with Mr. Rhodes 
he cordially agreed with what the historian said about 
our American rich men. He insisted that the same 
thing held true of our politicians, even the worst: 
that the average Roman rich man, like the average 
Roman public man, of the end of the Republic and of 
the beginning of the Empire, makes the correspond- 
ing man of our own time look like a self-denying, 
conscientious Puritan. He did not think very highly 
of the American multi-millionaire, nor of his wife, 
sons, and daughters when compared with some other 
types of our citizens; even in ability the plutocrat 
did not seem tc Roosevelt to show up very strongly 
save in his own narrowly limited field; and he and 
his womanhood, and those of less fortune who mod- 



302 THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

eled their lives upon his and upon the lives of his 
wife and children, struck Roosevelt as taking very 
little advantage of their opportunities. But to de- 
nounce them with hysterical exaggeration as re- 
sembling the unspeakable tyrants and debauchees 
of classic times, was simple nonsense. 

Roosevelt hoped he had been of some assistance 
in moving our people along the line Mr. Rhodes 
mentioned; that is, along the line of a sane, moder- 
ate purpose to supervise the business use of wealth 
and to curb its excesses, while keeping as far aloof 
from the policy of the visionary and demagogue as 
from the policy of the wealthy corruptionist. 



CHAPTER XIX 

CHOOSING HIS SUCCESSOR 

CRITICS frequently remark that Roosevelt was 
the most masterful politician of his time, and 
what we have already seen of his career should jus- 
tify this assertion. We need, however, to define what 
we mean by ''politician." Boss Piatt, of New York, 
was a politician, but far removed from Roosevelt. 
Piatt and all similar dishonest manipulators of 
voters — and the dishonesty took many forms — 
held their power, not by principles, but by exerting 
an unprincipled influence over the masses who sup- 
ported them. Roosevelt, on the other hand, was a 
great politician because he saw earlier than most 
men certain fundamental principles which he re- 
solved to carry through whether the Bosses or their 
supporters liked it or not. In a word he believed in 
principles rather than in men. He was a statesman, 
and like the statesman he understood that half a 
loaf is often better than no bread and that, though 
he must often compromise and conciliate, he must 
surrender nothing essential. 

As a result, his career as Assemblyman, as Civil 
Service Commissioner, as Police Commissioner of 



304 THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

New York City, as Governor of New York State, 
and as President, seems a continuous rising scale of 
success. We see the achievement which swallows up 
the baffling difficulties and the stubborn opposition. 
These we must always remember if we would meas- 
ure the extent of the victory. It was Roosevelt's per- 
sistence and his refusal to be baffled or turned aside 
which really made him seem to triumph in all his 
work. 

He never doubted, as I have often said, the neces- 
sity of party organization in our political system, 
although he recognized the tendency to corruption 
in it, the unreasoning loyalty which it bred and its 
substitution of Party for Country in its teaching. 
He had knowTi something of political machine meth- 
ods at Albany. After he became President, he knew 
them through and through as they were practiced 
on national proportions at Washington. The Machine 
had hoped to shelve him by making him Vice- 
President, and in spite of it he suddenly emerged as 
President. This confrontation would have been em- 
barrassing on both sides if Roosevelt had not dis- 
played unexpected tact. He avowed his purpose of 
carrying out McKinley's policies and he kept it 
faithfully, thus relieving the Machine of much 
anxiety. By his straightforwardness he even won the 
approval of Boss Quay, the lifelong political bandit 



CHOOSING HIS SUCCESSOR 305 

from Pennsylvania, who went to him and said in 
substance: *I believe that you are square and I will 
stand by you until you prove otherwise.' Roosevelt 
made no bargain, but like a sensible man he did not 
forbid Quay from voting on his side. Personally, 
also, Quay's lack of hypocrisy attracted him; for 
Quay never pretended that he was in politics to pro- 
mote the Golden Rule and he had skirted so close to 
the Penal Code that he knew how it looked and how 
he could evade it. Senator Hanna, the Ohio political 
Boss, who had made McKinley President by ways 
which cannot all be documented except by persons 
who have examined the Recording Angel's book (and 
research students of that original source never re- 
turn), was another towering figure whom Roosevelt 
had to get along with. He found out how to do it, 
and to do it so amicably that it was reported that 
he breakfasted often with the Ohio Senator and that 
they even ate griddle-cakes and scrapple together. 
The Senator evidently no more understood the alert 
and fascinating young President than we under- 
stand what is going on in the brain of a playful 
young tiger, but instinct warned him that this mys- 
terious young creature, electrified by a thousand 
talents, was dangerous and must be held down. And 
so with the other members of the Republican Ma- 
chine which ran both Houses of Congress and ex- 



3o6 THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

pected to run the undisciplined President too. Roose- 
velt studied them all and discovered how to deal 
with each. 

At the beginning of the year 1904, everybody be- 
gan to discuss the next Presidential campaign. Who 
should be the Republican candidate? The President, 
naturally, wished to be elected and thereby to hold 
the office in his own right and not by the chance of 
assassination. Senator Hanna surprised many of the 
politicians by bagging a good many delegates for 
himself. He probably did not desire to be President; 
like Warwick he preferred the glory of king-maker 
to that of king; but he was a shrewd business man 
who knew the value of having goods which, although 
he did not care for them himself, he might exchange 
for others. I doubt whether he deluded himself into 
supposing that the American people would elect so 
conspicuous a representative of the Big Interests as 
he was, to be President, but he knew that the for- 
tunes of candidates in political conventions are un- 
certain, and that if he had a considerable body of 
delegates to swing from one man to another, he 
might, if his choice won, become the power behind 
the new throne as he had been behind McKinley's. 
And if we could suspect him of humor he may have 
enjoyed fun to a mild degree in keeping the irrepress- 
ible Roosevelt in a state of suspense. 



CHOOSING HIS SUCCESSOR 307 

Senator Hanna's death, however, in February, 
1904, removed the only competitor whom Roosevelt 
could have regarded as dangerous. Thenceforth he 
held the field, and yet, farseeing politician though he 
was, he did not feel sure. The Convention at Chicago 
nominated him, virtually, by acclamation. In the 
following months of a rather slow campaign he had 
fits of depression, although all signs pointed to his 
success. Talking with Hay as late as October 30, 
he said: "It seems a cheap sort of thing to say, 
and I would not say it to other people, but laying 
aside my own great personal interests and hopes, — 
for of course I desire Intensely to succeed, — I have 
the greatest pride that in this fight we are not only 
making it on clearly avowed principles, but we have 
the principles and the record to avow. How can I 
help being a little proud when I contrast the men 
and the considerations by which I am attacked, and 
those by which I am defended?" ^ 

Just at the end, the campaign was enlivened by 
the attack which the Democratic candidate. Judge 
Alton B. Parker, made upon his opponent. He 
charged that Mr. Cortelyou, manager of the Re- 
publican campaign, might have received great sums 
of money from the Big Interests, and that he had, 
indeed, been appointed manager because, from his 
* W. R. Thayer: John Hay, 11, 356, 357. 



308 THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

previous experience as Secretary of the Department 
of Commerce, he had special information in regard 
to malefactors of great wealth which would enable 
him to coerce them to good purpose for the Re- 
publican Corruption Fund. President Roosevelt 
published a letter denying Judge Parker's state- 
ments as ''unqualifiedly and atrociously false." If 
Judge Parker's attack had any effect on the election 
it was to reduce his own votes. Later, Edward H. 
Harriman, the railroad magnate, tried to smirch 
Roosevelt by accusing him of seeking Harriman 's 
help in 1904, but this charge also was never sustained. 
At the election on November 8, Roosevelt had a 
majority of nearly two million and a half votes out 
of thirteen million and a half cast, thus securing by 
large odds the greatest popular majority any Presi- 
dent has had. The Electoral College gave him 336 
votes and Parker 140. That same evening, his vic- 
tory being assured, he dictated the following state- 
ment to the press: "The wise custom which limits 
the President to two terms, regards the substance 
and not the form, and under no circumstances will I 
be a candidate for and accept the nomination for 
another." Those who heard this statement, or who 
had talked the matter over with Roosevelt, under- 
stood that he had in mind a renomination in 1908, 
but many persons regarded it as his final renuncia- 



CHOOSING HIS SUCCESSOR 309 

tion of ever being a candidate for the Presidency. 
And later, when circumstances quite altered the sit- 
uation, this "promise" was revived to plague him. 

From March 4, 1905, he was President "in his own 
right." Behind him stood the American people, and 
he was justified in regarding himself, at that time, 
as the most popular President since Washington. 
The unprecedented majority of votes he had re- 
ceived at the election proved that, and proved also 
that the country believed in "his policies." So he 
might go ahead to carry out and to extend the gen- 
eral reforms which he had embarked on against much 
opposition. No one could question that he had a 
mandate from the people, and during his second term 
he was still more aggressive. 

Now, however, came the little rift which widened 
and widened and at last opened a great chasm be- 
tween Roosevelt and the people on one side and the 
Machine dominators of the Republican Party on 
the other. For although Roosevelt was the choice of 
the Republicans and of migratory voters from other 
parties, although he was, in fact, the idol of millions 
who supported him, the Republican Machine in- 
sisted on ruling. Before an election, the Machine 
consents to a candidate who can win, but after he 
has been elected the Machine instinctively acts as 
his master. A strong man, like President Cleveland, 



310 THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

may hold out against the Bosses of his party, but the 
penalty he has to pay is to find himself bereft of sup- 
port and his party shattered. This might have hap- 
pened in Roosevelt's case also, if he had not been 
more tactful than Cleveland was in dealing with his 
enemies. 

He now had to learn the bitter knowledge of the 
trials which beset a President whose vision outsoars 
that of the practical rulers of his party. In the House 
of Representatives there was a little group led by 
the Speaker, Joseph G. Cannon, of Illinois, who con- 
trolled that part of Congress with despotic arro- 
gance. In the Senate there was a similar group of 
political oligarchs, called the Steering Committee, 
which decided what questions should be discussed, 
what bills should be killed, and what others should 
be passed. Aldrich, of Rhode Island, headed this. 
A multi-millionaire himself, he was the particular 
advocate of the Big Interests. Next came Allison, 
of Iowa, an original Republican, who entered Con- 
gress in 1863 and remained there for the rest of his 
life, a hide-bound party man, personally honest and 
sufficiently prominent to be "talked of" for Vice- 
President on several occasions. He was rather the 
peacemaker of the Steering Committee, having the 
art of reconciling antagonists and of smoothing an- 
noying angles. A little older, was Orville H. Piatt, 



CHOOSING HIS SUCCESSOR 311 

the Senator from Connecticut who died in 1905, and 
was esteemed a model of virtue among the Senators 
of his time. As an offset to the men of threescore and 
ten and over was Albert J. Beveridge, the young Sen- 
ator from Indiana, vigorous, eloquent, fearless, and 
radical, whose mind and heart were consecrated to 
Roosevelt. Beveridge, at least, had no ties, secret or 
open, with the Trusts, or the Interests, or Wall Street; 
on the contrary, he attacked them fiercely, and among 
other Anti-Trust legislation he drove through the 
Meat Inspection Bill. How he managed to get on 
with the gray wolves of the Committee it would be 
interesting to hear; but we must rid ourselves of the 
notion that those gray wolves sought personal profit 
in money by their steering. None of them was 
charged with using his position for the benefit of his 
purse. Power was what those politicians desired; 
Power, which gave them the opportunity to make 
the political tenets of their party prevail. Orville 
Piatt, or Allison, regarded Republicanism with al- 
most religious fanaticism; and we need not search 
far in history to find fanatics who were personally 
very good and tender-hearted men, but who would 
put heretics to death with a smile of pious satisfac- 
tion. 

Roosevelt's task was to persuade the Steering 
Committee to support him in as many of his Radical 



312 THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

measures as he could. They had done this during 
his first Administration, partly because they did 
not see whither he was leading. Senator Hanna, then 
a member of the Steering Committee, attempted to 
steady all Republicans who seemed likely to be se- 
duced by Roosevelt's subversive novelties by telling 
them to "stand pat," and, as we look back now, the 
Senator from Ohio, with his stand-pattism broom 
reminds us of the portly Mrs. Partington trying to 
sweep back the inflowing Atlantic Ocean. During 
the second Administration, however, no one could 
plead Ignorance or surprise when Roosevelt urged 
on new projects. He made no secret of his policies, 
and he could not have disguised, if he would, the 
fact that he was thorough. By a natural tendency the 
"Stand-Patters" drew closer together. Similarly 
the various elements which followed Roosevelt 
tended to combine. Already some of these were be- 
ginning to be called "Insurgents," but this name 
did not frighten them nor did it shame them back 
into the fold of the orthodox Republicans. As Roose- 
velt continued his fight for reclamation, conserva- 
tion, health, and pure foods, and governmental con- 
trol of the great monopolies, the opposition to him, 
on the part of the capitalists affected, grew more 
intense. What wonder that these men, realizing at 
last that their unlimited privileges would be taken 



CHOOSING HIS SUCCESSOR 313 

away from them, resented their deprivation. The 
privileged classes in England have not welcomed the 
suggestion that their great landed estates shall be 
cut up, nor can we expect that the American dukes 
and marquises of oil and steel and copper and trans- 
portation should look forward with meek acquies- 
cence to their own extinction. 

Nevertheless, there is no politics in politics, and 
so the gray wolves who ran the Republican Party, 
knowing that Roosevelt, and not themselves, had 
the determining popular support of the country, were 
too wary to block him entirely as the Democrats had 
done under Cleveland. They let his bills go through, 
but with more evident reluctance, only after bitter 
fighting. And as they were nearly all church mem- 
bers in good standing, we can imagine that they 
prayed the Lord to hasten the day when this pesti- 
lent marplot in the White House should retire from 
office. Trusting Roosevelt so far as to believe that 
he would stand by his pledge not to be a can- 
didate in 1908, they cast about for a person of their 
own stripe whom they could make the country 
accept. 

But Roosevelt himself felt too deeply involved in 
the cause of Reform, which he had been pushing for 
seven years, to allow his successor to be dictated by 
the Stand-Patters. So he sought among his associates 



314 THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

in the Cabinet for the member who, judging by their 
work together, would most loyally carry on his poli- 
cies, and at length he decided upon William H. Taft, 
his Secretary of War. " Root would make the better 
President, but Taft would be the better candidate," 
Theodore wrote to an intimate, and that opinion was 
generally held in Washington and elsewhere. Mr. 
Root had so conducted the Department of State, 
since the death of John Hay, that many good judges 
regarded him as the ablest of all the Secretaries of 
that Department, and Roosevelt himself went even 
farther. "Root," he said to me, "is the greatest in- 
tellectual force in American public life since Lin- 
coln." But in his career as lawyer, which brought 
him to the head of the American Bar, he had been 
attorney for powerful corporations, and that being 
the time when the Government was fighting the 
Corporations, it was not supposed that his can- 
didacy would be popular. So Taft was preferred to 
him. 

The Republican Machine accepted Taft as a can- 
didate with composure, if not with enthusiasm. Any 
one would be better than Roosevelt in the eyes of 
the Machine and its supporters, and perhaps they 
perceived in Secretary Taft qualities not wholly un- 
sympathetic. They were probably thankful, also, 
that Roosevelt had not demanded more. He allowed 



CHOOSING HIS SUCCESSOR 315 

the "regulars" to choose the nominee for Vice-Presi- 
dent, and he did not meddle with the make-up of the 
Republican National Committee. One of his critics, 
Dean Lewis, marks this as Roosevelt's chief political 
blunder, because by leaving the Republican Na- 
tional Committee in command he virtually pre- 
determined the policy of the next four years. Only 
a very strong President with equal zeal and fighting 
quality could win against the Committee. In 1908 
he had them so docile that he might have changed 
their membership, and changed the rules by which 
elections were governed if he had so willed, but, just 
as before the election of 1904, Roosevelt had doubted 
his own popularity in the country, so now he missed 
his chance because he did not wish to seem to wrest 
from the unwilling Machine powers which it lost no 
time in using against him. 

The campaign never reached a dramatic crisis. 
Mr. Bryan, the Democratic candidate, who still 
posed as the Boy Orator of the Platte, although he 
had passed forty-eight years of age, made a spirited 
canvass, and when the votes were counted he gained 
more than a million and a third over the total for 
Judge Parker in 1904. But Mr. Taft won easily by a 
million and a quarter votes. 

Between election and inauguration an ominous 
disillusion set in. The Rooseveltians had taken it for 



3i6 THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

granted that the new President would carry on the 
policies of the old; more than that, the impression 
prevailed among them that the high officials of the 
Roosevelt Administration, including some members 
of his Cabinet, would be retained, but when Inaugu- 
ration Day came, it appeared that Mr. Taft had 
chosen a new set of advisers, and he denied that he 
had given any one reason to believe that he would 
do otherwise. 

March 4, 1909, was a wintry day in Washington. 
A snowstorm and high winds prevented holding the 
inaugural exercises out of doors as usual on the East 
Front of the Capitol. President Roosevelt and Presi- 
dent-elect Taft drove in state down Pennsylvania 
Avenue, and Mr. Taft, having taken the oath of 
office, delivered his inaugural address in the Senate 
Chamber. The ceremonies being over, Mr. Roosevelt, 
instead of accompanying the new President to the 
White House, went to the railway station and took 
the train for New York. This innovation had been 
planned some time before, because Mr. Roosevelt 
had arranged to sail for Europe in a few days, and 
needed to reach Oyster Bay as soon as possible to 
complete his preparations. 

Many an eye-witness who watched him leave, as 
a simple civilian, the Hall of Congress, must have 
felt that with his going there closed one of the most 



CHOOSING HIS SUCCESSOR 317 

memorable administrations this country had ever 
known. Roosevelt departed, but his invisible pres- 
ence still filled the capital city and frequented every 
quarter of the Narion. 



w 



CHAPTER XX 

WORLD HONORS 

HAT to do with ex-Presidents is a problem 
which worries those happy Americans who 
have nothing else to worry over. They think of an 
ex-President as of a sacred white elephant, who must 
not work, although he has probably too little money 
to keep him alive in proper ease and dignity. In fact, 
however, these gentlemen have managed, at least 
during the past half-century, to sink back into the 
civilian mass from which they emerged without suf- 
fering want themselves or dimming the lustre which 
radiates from the office. Roosevelt little thought that 
in quitting the Presidency he was not going into po- 
litical obscurity. 

Roosevelt had two objects in view when he left 
the White House. He sought long and complete rest, 
and to place himself beyond the reach of politicians. 
In fairness, he wished to give Mr. Taft a free field, 
which would hardly have been possible if Roosevelt 
had remained in Washington or New York, where 
politicians might have had access to him. 

Accordingly, he planned to hunt big game in Af- 
rica for a year, and in order to have a definite pur- 



WORLD HONORS 319 

pose, which might give his expedition lasting use- 
fulness, he arranged to collect specimens for the 
Smithsonian Institution in Washington. His second 
son, Kermit, then twenty years of age, besides sev- 
eral naturalists and hunters, accompanied him. His 
expedition sailed from New York on March 23d, 
touched at the Azores and at Gibraltar, where the 
English Commander showed him the fortifications, 
and transshipped at Naples into an East-African 
liner. He found his stateroom filled with flowers sent 
by his admiring friend. Kaiser William H, with a 
telegram of effusive greeting, and with messages 
and tokens from minor potentates. More important 
to him than these tributes, however, was the pres- 
ence of Frederick C. Selous, the most famous hunter 
of big game in Africa, who joined the ship and proved 
a congenial fellow passenger. They reached Mom- 
basa on April 23d, and after the caravan had been 
made ready, they started for the interior. 

We need not follow in detail the year which 
Roosevelt and his party spent in his African hunting. 
The railroad took them to Lake Victoria Nyanza, 
but they stopped at many places on the way, and 
made long excursions into the country. Then from 
the Lake they proceeded to the Albert Nyanza and 
steamed down the Nile to Gondokoro, which they 
reached on February 26, 1910. On March 14th at 



320 THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

Khartoum, where Mrs. Roosevelt and their daughter 
Ethel awaited them, Roosevelt emerged into civiliza- 
tion again. He and Kermit had shot 512 beasts and 
birds, of which they kept about a dozen for trophies, 
the] rest going to the Smithsonian Institution and to 
the museums. A few of their specimens were unique, 
and the total product of the expedition was the 
most important which had ever reached America 
from Africa. 

After spending a few days in visiting Omdurman 
and other scenes connected with the British con- 
quest of the Mahdists, less than a dozen years before, 
the Roosevelts went down the river to Cairo, where 
the ex-President addressed the Egyptian students. 
These were the backbone of the so-called National- 
ist Party, which aimed at driving out the British and 
had killed the Prime Minister a month before. They 
warned Roosevelt that if he dared to touch on this 
subject he, too, would be assassinated. But such 
threats did not move him then or ever. Roosevelt re- 
proved them point-blank for killing Boutros Pasha, 
and told them that a party which sought freedom 
must show its capacity for living by law and order, 
before it could expect to l eserve freedom. 

From Egypt, Roosevelt crossed to Naples, and 
then began what must be described as a triumphal 
progress through Central and Western Europe. Only 



WORLD HONORS 321 

General Grant, after his Presidency, had made a sim- 
ilar tour, but he did not excite a tenth of the popular 
interest and enthusiasm which Roosevelt excited. 
Although Grant had the prestige of being the success- 
ful general of the most tremendous war ever fought 
in America, he had nothing picturesque or magnetic 
in his personality. The peasants in the remote re- 
gions had heard of Roosevelt; persons of every class 
in the cities knew about him a little more definitely; 
and all were keen to see him. Except Garibaldi, no 
modern ever set multitudes on fire as Roosevelt did, 
and Garibaldi was the hero of a much narrower 
sphere and had the advantage of being the hero of the 
then downtrodden masses. Roosevelt, on the other 
hand, belonged to the ruling class in America, had 
served nearly eight years as President of the United 
States, and was equally the popular idol without 
class distinction. And he had just come from a 
very remarkable exploit, having led his scientific and 
hunting expedition for twelve months through the 
perils and hardships of tropical Africa. We Americans 
may well thrill with satisfaction to remember that it 
was this most typical of Americans who received the 
honors and homage of the world precisely because he 
was most typically American and strikingly indi- 
vidual. 

Before he reached Italy on his way back, he had 



322 THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

invitations from most of the sovereigns of Europe to 
visit them, and universities and learned bodies re- 
quested him to address them. At Rome, as guest of 
King Victor Emanuel II, he received ovations of the 
exuberant and throbbing kind, which only the Ital- 
ians can give. But here also occurred what might have 
been, but for his common sense and courage, a hitch 
in his triumphal progress. The intriguers of the Vat- 
ican, always on the alert to edify the Roman Catho- 
lics in the United States, thought they saw a chance 
to exalt themselves and humble the Protestants by 
stipulating that Colonel Roosevelt, who had ac- 
cepted an invitation to call upon the Pope, should not 
visit any Protestant organization while he was in that 
city. Some time before, Vice-President Fairbanks 
had incensed Cardinal Merry del Val, the Papal Sec- 
retary, and his group, by remarks at the Methodist 
College in Rome. Here was a dazzling opportunity 
for not only getting even, but for coming out victo- 
rious. If the Vatican schemers could force Colonel 
Roosevelt, who, at the moment, was the greatest fig- 
ure in the world, to obey their orders, they might 
exult in the sight of all the nations. Should he balk, 
he would draw down upon himself a hostile Catholic 
vote at home. Probably the good-natured Pope him- 
self understood little about the intrigue and took 
little part in it, for Pius X was rather a kindly and 



WORLD HONORS 323 

a genuinely pious pontiff. But Cardinal Merry del 
Val, apt pupil of the Jesuits, made an egregious blun- 
der if he expected to catch Theodore Roosevelt in a 
Papal trap. The Rector of the American Catholic 
College in Rome wrote: "'The Holy Father will be 
delighted to grant audience to Mr. Roosevelt on 
April 5th, and hopes nothing will arise to prevent it, 
such as the much-regretted incident which made the 
reception of Mr. Fairbanks impossible.' Roosevelt 
replied to our Ambassador as follows: 'On the other 
hand, I in my turn must decline to have any stipula- 
tions made or submit to any conditions which in any 
way limit my freedom of conduct.* To this the Vat- 
ican replied through our Ambassador: 'In view of 
the circumstances for which neither His Holiness nor 
Mr. Roosevelt is responsible, an audience could not 
occur except on the understanding expressed in the 
former message.' " ^ 

Ex-President Roosevelt did not, by calling upon 
the Pope, furnish Cardinal Merry del Val with cause 
to gloat. A good while afterward in talking over the 
matter with me, Roosevelt dismissed it with "No 
self-respecting American could allow his actions or 
his going and coming to be dictated to him by any 
Pope or King." That, to him, was so self-evident a 
fact that it required no discussion ; and the American 
* Washburn, 164, 



324 THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

people, Including probably a large majority of Roman 
Catholics, agreed with him. 

From Rome he went to Austria, to Vienna first, 
where the aged Emperor, Francis Joseph, welcomed 
him; and then to Budapest, where the Hungarians, 
eager for their independence, shouted themselves 
hoarse at sight of the representative of American in- 
dependence. Wherever he went the masses in the 
cities crowded round him and the people in the coun- 
try flocked to cheer him as he passed. Since Norway 
had conferred on him the Nobel Peace Prize after the 
Russo-Japanese War, he journeyed to Christiania to 
pay his respects to the Nobel Committee, and there 
he delivered an address on the conditions necessary 
for a universal peace in which he foreshadowed many 
of the terms which have since been preached by the 
advocates of a League of Nations. In Berlin, the 
Kaiser received him with ostentatious friendliness. 
He addressed him as "Friend Roosevelt." Since the 
Colonel was not a monarch the Kaiser could not ad- 
dress him as "Brother" or as "Cousin," and the 
word "Friend" disguised whatever condescension he 
may have felt. There was a grand military review of 
twelve thousand troops, which the Kaiser and his 
"Friend" inspected, and he took care to inform 
Roosevelt that he was the first civilian to whom this 
honor had ever been paid. An Imperial photographer 



WORLD HONORS 325 

made snapshots of the Colonel and the Kaiser, and 
these were subsequently given to the Colonel with 
superscriptions and comments written by the Kaiser 
on the negatives. Roosevelt's impression of his Im- 
perial host was, on the whole, favorable. I do not 
think he regarded him as very solid, personally, but 
he recognized the results of the power which Wil- 
liam's inherited position as Emperor conferred on 
him. 

Paris did not fall behind any of the other Eu- 
ropean capitals in the enthusiasm of its welcome. 
There, Roosevelt was received in solemn session by 
the Sorbonne, before which he spoke on citizenship 
in a Republic, and, with prophetic vision, he warned 
against the seductions of phrase-makers as among 
the insidious dangers to which Republics were ex- 
posed. 

His most conspicuous triumph, however, was in 
England. On May 6th, King Edward VH died, and 
President Taft appointed Colonel Roosevelt special 
envoy, to represent the United States at the royal 
funeral. This drew together crowned heads from all 
parts of Europe, so that at one of the State functions 
at Buckingham Palace there were no fewer than thir- 
teen monarchs at table. The Colonel stayed at Dor- 
chester House with the American Ambassador, Mr. 
Whitelaw Reid, and was beset by calls and invita- 



326 THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

tions from the crowned personages. I have heard him 
give a most amusing account of that experience, but 
it is too soon to repeat it. Then, as always, he could 
tell a bore at sight, and the bore could not deceive 
him by any disguise of ermine cloak or Imperial title. 
The German Kaiser seems to have taken pains to pose 
as the preferred intimate of "Friend Roosevelt, " but 
the "Friend" remained unwaveringly Democratic. 
One day William telephoned to ask Roosevelt to 
lunch with him, but the Colonel diplomatically 
pleaded a sore throat, and declined. At another time 
when the Kaiser wished him to come and chat, Roose- 
velt replied that he would with pleasure, but that he 
had only twenty minutes at the Kaiser's disposal, as 
he had already arranged to call on Mrs. Humphry 
Ward at three- thirty. These reminiscences may seem 
trifling, unless you take them as illustrating the truly 
Democratic simplicity with which the First Citizen 
of the American Republic met the scions of the Haps- 
burgs and the Hohenzollems on equal terms as gen- 
tleman with gentlemen. 

Some of his backbiters and revilers at home whis- 
pered that his head was turned by all these pageants 
and courtesies of kings, and that he regretted that 
our system provided for no monarch. This afforded 
him infinite amusement. "Think of it! " he said to me 
after his return. "They even say that I want to be a 



WORLD HONORS 327 

prince myself ! Not I ! I' ve seen too many of them ! 
Do you know what a prince is? He's a cross between 
Ward McAllister and Vice-President Fairbanks. How 
can any one suppose I should like to be that?" 
It may be necessary to inform the later generation 
that Mr. Ward McAllister was'^an estimable gen- 
tleman in New York City who achieved fame by 
devotedly upholding the purity of New York So- 
ciety and by limiting its number to the Four Hun- 
dred. Vice-President ^Fairbanks was an Indiana 
politician, tall and thin and oppressively taciturn, 
who seemed to be stricken dumb by the weight of 
an immemorial ancestry or by the sense of his own 
importance; and who was not less cold than dumb, 
so that irreverent jokers reported that persons might 
freeze to death in his presence if they came too near 
or stayed too long. 

All this was only the froth on the stream of Roose- 
velt's experience in England. He took deep enjoy- 
ment in meeting the statesmen and the authors and 
the learned men there. The City of London bestowed 
the freedom of the city upon him. The Universities 
of Cambridge and Oxford gave him their highest hon- 
orary degrees. At the London Guildhall he made a 
memorable address, in which he warned the British 
nation to see to it that the grievances of the Egyp- 
tian people were not allowed to fester. Critics at the 



328 THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

moment chided this advice as an exhibition of bad 
taste; an intrusion, if not an impertinence, on the 
part of a foreigner. They did not know, however, 
that before speaking, Roosevelt submitted his re- 
marks to high officers In the Government and had 
their approval ; for apparently they were well pleased 
that this burning topic should be brought under dis- 
cussion by means of Roosevelt's warning. 

At Cambridge University he exhorted the students 
not to be satisfied with a life of sterile athleticism. 
"I never was an athlete," said he, "although I have 
always led an outdoor life, and have accomplished 
something In It, simply because my theory is that al* 
most any man can do a great deal. If he will, by get- 
ting the utmost possible service out of the qualities 
that he actually possesses. . . . The average man who 
is successful — the average statesman, the average 
public servant, the average soldier, who wins what we 
call great success — is not a genius. He is a man who 
has merely the ordinary qualities that he shares with 
his fellows, but who has developed those ordinary 
qualities to a more than ordinary degree." 

The culmination of his addresses abroad was his 
Romanes Lecture, delivered at the Convocation at 
Oxford University on June 7, 1910. Lord Curzon, the 
Chancellor, presided. Roosevelt took for his theme, 
"Biological Analogies in History," a subject which 



WORLD HONORS 329 

his lifelong interest in natural history and his consid- 
erable reading in scientific theory made appropriate. 
He afterwards said that in order not to commit 
shocking blunders he consulted freely his old friend 
Dr. Henry Fairfield Osborn, head of the Museum of 
Natural History in New York City, but the substance 
and ideas were unquestionably his own. 

Dr. Henry Goudy, "the public orator" at Cam- 
bridge, in a Presentation Speech, eulogized Roose- 
velt's manifold activities and achievements, declar- 
ing, among other things, that he had "acquired a title 
to be ranked with his great predecessor Abraham 
Lincoln — * of whom one conquered slavery, and the 
other corruption.'" Lord Curzon addressed him as, 
"peer of the most august kings, queller of wars, de- 
stroyer of monsters wherever found, yet the most 
human of mankind, deeming nothing indifferent to 
you, not even the blackest of the black." 

This cluster of foreign addresses is not the least re- 
markable of Roosevelt's intellectual feats. No doubt 
among those who listened to him in each place there 
were carping critics, scholars who did not find his 
words scholarly enough, dilettanti made tepid by 
over-culture, intellectual cormorants made heavy by 
too much information, who found no novelty in what 
he said, and were insensible to the rush and freshness 
of his style. But in spite of these he did plant in each 



330 THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

audience thoughts which they remembered, and he 
touched upon a range of interests which no other 
man then alive could have made to seem equally 
vital. 

On June i8th Mr. and Mrs. Roosevelt reached 
New York. All the way up the harbor from Sandy 
Hook, he was escorted by a vast concourse of vessels, 
large and small, tugs, steamboats, and battleships. 
At the Narrows, Fort Wadsworth greeted him with 
the Presidential salute of twenty-one guns. The rev- 
enue-cutter, Androscoggin, took him from the Kai- 
serin Auguste Victoria, on which he had crossed the 
ocean, and landed him at the Battery. There an im- 
mense multitude awaited him. Mayor Gaynor bade 
him welcome, to which he replied briefly in affection- 
ate words to his fellow countrymen. Then began a 
triumphal procession up Broadway, and up Fifth 
Avenue, surpassing any other which New York had 
seen. No other person in America had ever been so 
welcomed. The million or more who shouted and 
cheered and waved, were proud of him because of 
his great reception in Europe, but they admired him 
still more for his imperishable work at home, and 
loved him most of all, because they knew him as 
their friend and fellow, Theodore Roosevelt, their 
ideal American. A group of Rough Riders and two 
regiments of Spanish War Veterans formed his im- 



WORLD HONORS 331 

mediate escort, than whom none could have pleased 
him better. 

His head was not turned, but his heart must have 
overflowed with gratitude. 

Later, when the crowds had dispersed, he went 
into a bookstore, and some one in the street having 
recognized him, the word passed, and a great crowd 
cheered him as he came out. Telling his sister of the 
occurrence, he said, "And they soon will be throwing 
rotten apples at me!" 



D 



CHAPTER XXI 

WHICH WAS THE REPUBLICAN PARTY? 

ID those words of Roosevelt spring from his 
sense of humor — humor which recognizes the 
topsy-turvy of life and its swift changes, and still 
laughs — or from the instinct which knows that even 
in the sweetest of all experiences there must be a drop 
of bitterness? Whatever their cause, they proved to 
be a true foreboding. He had not been home twenty- 
four hours before he perceived, on talking with his 
friends, that the Republican Party during his absence 
had drifted far from the course he had charted. " His 
policies" had vanished with his control, and the men 
who now managed the Administration and the party 
regarded him, not merely with suspicion, but with 
aversion. 

To tell the story of this conflict is the disagreeable 
duty of the historian of that period, especially if he 
have friends and acquaintances on both sides of the 
feud. There are some facts not yet known; there are 
others which must be touched upon very delicately 
if at all ; and. In the main, so much of the episode grew 
out of personal likes and dislikes that It Is hard to 
base one's account of it on documents. In trying 



WHICH WAS THE REPUBLICAN PARTY ? 333 

to get at the truth, I have been puzzled by the 
point-blank contradictions of antagonistic witnesses, 
whose veracity has not been questioned. Equally per- 
plexing are the lapses of memory in cases where I 
happen to have seen letters or documents written at 
the time and giving real facts. The country would 
assuredly have been alarmed if it had suspected that, 
during the years from 1909 to 1912, the statesmen 
who had charge of it were as liable to attacks of 
amnesia as they proved to be later. 

The head and front of the quarrel which wrecked 
the Republican Party must be sought in Roosevelt's 
thoroughly patriotic desire to have a successor who 
should carry on the principles which he had fought 
for and had embodied in national laws during the 
nearly eight years of his Presidency. He felt more 
passionately than anybody else the need of contin- 
uing the work he had begun, not because it was his 
work, but because on it alone, as he thought, the 
reconciliation between Capital and Labor in the 
United States could be brought about, and the im- 
pending war of classes could be prevented. So he 
chose Judge Taft as the person who, he believed, 
would follow his lead in this undertaking. But the 
experience of a hundred and ten years, since Wash- 
ington was succeeded by John Adams, might have 
taught him that no President can quite reproduce 



334 THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

the qualities of his predecessor and that the estab- 
lishment of a Presidential dynasty is not congenial 
to the spirit of the American people. Jefferson did, 
indeed, hand on his mantle to Madison, and the 
experiment partially succeeded. But Madison was 
much nearer Jefferson in ability and influence than 
Judge Taft was near Roosevelt. 

During the campaign of 1908, and immediately 
after the election, we can imagine that Mr. Taft was 
sincerely open to Roosevelt's suggestions, and that 
he quite naturally gave Roosevelt the impression 
that he intended to follow them, not because they 
were Roosevelt's, but because they were his own also. 
As soon as he began to realize that he was President, 
and that a President has a right to speak and act 
on his own motion, Mr. Taft saw other views rising 
within him, other preferences, other resolves. From 
the bosom of his family he may have heard the ex- 
hortation, "Be your own President; don't be any- 
body's man or rubber stamp." No doubt intimate 
friends strengthened this advice. The desire to be 
free and independent, which lies at the bottom of 
every normal heart, took possession of him also; 
further, was it not the strict duty of a President to 
give the country the benefit of his best judgment 
instead of following the rules laid down by another, 
or to parrot another's doctrines? 



WHICH WAS THE REPUBLICAN PARTY ? 335 

Whatever may have been the process by which the 
change came, it had come before Taft's inauguration. 
He chose a new Cabinet, although Roosevelt sup- 
posed that several of the members of his Cabinet 
would be retained. Before the Colonel started for 
Africa he felt that a change had come, but he went 
away with the hope that things would turn out bet- 
ter than he feared. His long absence under the Equa- 
tor would relieve any anxiety Taft might have as to 
Roosevelt's intention to dictate or interfere. 

Very little political news reached the Colonel while 
he was hunting. On reaching Italy, on his return 
journey, he met Mr. Gifford Pinchot, who had come 
post-haste from New York, and conveyed to him the 
latest account of the political situation at home. It 
was clear that the Republican Party had split into 
two factions — the Regulars, who regarded President 
Taft as their standard-bearer, and the Insurgents, 
who rallied round Roosevelt, and longed desperately 
for his return. To the enemies of the Administration, 
it seemed that Mr. Taft had turned away from the 
Rooseveltian policies. In his appointments he had 
replaced Roosevelt men by Regulars. His Secretary 
of the Interior, Mr. Ballinger, came into conflict 
with Mr. Pinchot over conservation, and the public 
assumed that the President was not only uncon- 
cerned to uphold conservation, but was willing that 



336 THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

the natural resources of the Nation should fall again 
into the hands of greedy private corporations. This 
assumption proved to be false, and Secretary Ballin- 
ger was exonerated by a public investigation ; but for 
two years, at least, the cloud hung over Mr. Taft's 
reputation, and, as always happens, the correction be- 
ing far less nimble than the accusation, took a much 
longer time in remedying the harm that it had done. 
When, therefore, Roosevelt landed at the Battery 
on June i8, 1910, the day of his apotheosis, he knew 
that a factional fight was raging in the Republican 
Party. His trusty followers, and every one who bore 
a grudge against the Administration, urged him to 
unfurl his flag and check any further disintegration ; 
but prudence controlled him and he announced that 
he should not speak on political matters for at least 
two months. He was sincere; but a few days later 
at the Harvard Commencement exercises he met 
Governor Hughes, of New York State, who was 
waging a fierce struggle against the Machine to put 
through a bill on primary elections. The Governor 
begged the Colonel as a patriotic boss-hating citi- 
zen, to help him, and Roosevelt hastily wrote and 
dispatched to Albany a telegram urging Republicans 
to support Hughes. In the result, his advice was not 
heeded, a straw which indicated that the Machine 
no longer feared to disregard him. 



WHICH WAS THE REPUBLICAN PARTY ? 337 

For several weeks Roosevelt waited and watched, 
and found out by personal investigation how the 
Republican Party stood. It took little inspection 
to show him that the Taft Administration was not 
carrying out his policies, and that the elements 
against which he had striven for eight years were 
creeping back. Indeed, they had crept back. It would 
be unjust to Mr. Taft to assert that he had not 
continued the war on Trusts. Under his able Attor- 
ney-General, Mr. George W. Wickersham, many 
prosecutions were going forward, and in some cases 
the legislation begun by Roosevelt was extended 
and made more effective. I speak now as to the 
general course of Mr. Taft's Administration and not 
specially of the events of 19 10. In spite of this 
continuation of the battle with the Octopus — as 
the Big Interests, Wall Street, and Trusts were in- 
discriminately nicknamed — the public did not be- 
lieve that Mr. Taft and his assistants pushed the 
fight with their whole heart. Perhaps they were mis- 
judged. Mr. Taft being in no sense a spectacular 
person, whatever he did would lack the spectacular 
quality which radiated from all Roosevelt's actions. 
Then, too, the pioneer has deservedly a unique re- 
ward. Just as none of the navigators who followed 
Columbus on the voyage to the Western Continent 
could win credit like his, so the prestige which Roose- 



338 THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

velt gained from being the first to grapple with the 
great monopoHes could not be shared by any suc- 
cessor of his, who simply carried on the work of 
"trust-busting," as it was called, which had be- 
come commonplace. 

Nevertheless, although nobody doubted Mr. 
Wickersham's legal ability, the country felt that 
during the Taft Administration zeal had gone out 
of the campaign of the Administration against the 
Interests. Roosevelt had plunged into the fray with 
the enthusiasm of a Crusader. Taft followed him 
from afar, but without feeling the Crusader's conse- 
cration or his terrible sincerity. And during the first 
six months of his Administration, President Taft 
had unwittingly given the country the measure of 
himself. 

The Republican platform adopted at Chicago de- 
clared "unequivocally for a revision of the tariff by 
a special session of Congress, immediately following 
the inauguration of the next President. ... In all 
tariff legislation the true principle of protection is 
best maintained by the imposition of such duties as 
will equal the difference between the cost of produc- 
tion at home and abroad, together with a reasonable 
profit to American industries. We favor the estab- 
lishment of maximum and minimum rates to be 
administered by the President under limitations 



WHICH WAS THE REPUBLICAN PARTY ? 339 

fixed in the law, the maximum to be available to 
meet discriminations by foreign countries against 
American goods entering their markets, and the 
minimum to represent the normal measure of pro- 
tection at home." The American public, regardless 
of party, assumed that the "revision" referred to in 
this plank of the Republican platform meant a re- 
vision downward; and it supposed, from sayings and 
opinions of Mr. Taft, that he put the same construc- 
tion upon it. He at once called a special session of 
Congress, and a new tariff bill was framed under the 
direction of Sereno E. Payne, a Stand-Pat Repub- 
lican member of Congress, Chairman of the Com- 
mittee on Ways and Means, and Nelson W. Aldrich, 
Senator from Rhode Island, and guardian angel and 
factotum for the Big Interests. For several months 
these gentlemen conducted the preparation of the 
new bill. Payne had already had experience in put- 
ting through the McKinley Tariff in 1890, and the 
Dingley Tariff in 1897. Again the committee-room 
was packed by greedy protectionists who, for a 
consideration, got from the Government whatever 
profit they paid for. Neither Payne nor Aldrich had 
the slightest idea that to fix tariff rates to enrich 
special individuals and firms was a most corrupt 
practice. When a Republican Senator, who honestly 
supposed that the revision would be downward, pri- 



340 THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

vately remonstrated, the reply he heard was, "Where 
shall we get our campaign funds?" Finally, after 
some discussion between the House and the Senate 

— a discussion which did not lessen the enormities 
of the measure — the Payne- Aldrich Bill was passed 
by Congress and signed by President Taft, and it 
enjoyed the bad eminence of being worse than the 
McKinley and the Dingley tariffs which had pre- 
ceded it. 

The public, which had seen more clearly than on 
former occasions, how such charters to legalize indus- 
trial piracy were devised, was somewhat dashed by 
President Taft's approval. Perhaps it still hoped 
that the creation of a non-partisan Tariff Commis- 
sion of experts would put an end to this indecent 
purchase and sale of privileges and would establish 
rates after the scientific investigation of each case. 
Soon, however, these hopes were swept away; for 
on September 17, 1909, the President delivered at 
Winona, Minnesota, a laudatory speech on the new 
tariff. He admitted that some points in Schedule K 

— that comprising wool and woolen goods — were 
too high. But, he said solemnly that this was "the 
best tariff law the Republicans ever made, and, 
therefore, the best the country ever had." In that 
Winona speech, Mr. Taft hung a millstone round 
his own neck. His critics and his friends alike had 



WHICH WAS THE REPUBLICAN PARTY ? 341 

thrust upon them this dilemma : either he knew that 
the Payne-Aldrich Tariff had been arrived at by 
corrupt ways and was not a revision downward — 
in spite of which he pronounced it the "best ever"; 
or he did not know its nature and the means used in 
framing it. In the latter case, he could not be con- 
sidered a person sufficiently informed on great finan- 
cial questions, or on the practices of some of the 
politicians who made laws for him to sign, to be 
qualified to sit in the President's chair. If, on the 
other hand, knowing the measure to be bad he de- 
clared it the "best ever," he was neither sincere nor 
honest, and in this case also he was not a President 
whom the country could respect. 

I would not imply that the American public went 
through this process of reasoning at once, or arrived 
at such clear-cut conclusions; Demos seldom in- 
dulges in the luxury of logic; but the shock caused 
by the Winona speech vibrated through the country 
and never after that did the public fully trust Mr. 
Taft. It knew that the Interests had crawled back 
and dictated the Payne-Aldrich Tariff, and it sur- 
mised that, although he prosecuted the Trusts dili- 
gently, they did not feel greatly terrified. But no- 
body whispered or suspected that he was not honest. 

While President Taft slowly lost his hold on the 
American people, he gained proportionately with the 



342 THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

Republican Machine. That Machine was composed 
of the Regulars of the party, or the Conservatives, 
as they preferred to be called, and it was losing its 
hold on the country. There comes a time in every 
sect, party, or institution when it stops growing, its 
arteries harden, its young men see no visions, its 
old men dream no dreams; it lives in the past and 
desperately tries to perpetuate the past. In politics 
when this process of petrifaction is reached, we call 
it Bourbonism, and the sure sign of the Bourbon is 
that, being unconscious that he is the victim of 
sclerosis, he sees no reason for seeking a cure. Unable 
to adjust himself to change and new conditions he 
falls back into the past, as an old man drops into 
his worn-out armchair. 

Now Roosevelt had been, of course, the negation 
of Bourbonism. He had led the Republican Party 
into new fields and set it to do new work, and far 
ofT, shining clearly, its goal beckoned it on. His fol- 
lowers were mostly young men; they saw that the 
world had changed, and would change still further, 
and they went forward valiantly to meet it and, if 
possible, to shape its changes. For ten years past, 
these Radicals, as the Regulars named them some- 
what reproachfully, and who were better defined as 
*' Insurgents," had played an increasingly important 
part in Congress. They would not submit to the 



WHICH WAS THE REPUBLICAN PARTY ? 343 

Bosses and the Machine, but voted Independently, 
and, although they were not all of them avowed 
Rooseveltians, they all were going in his direction. 
In the second year of Mr. Taft's Administration, 
they rebelled against the rigid dictatorship of 
Joseph G. Cannon, the Speaker of the Plouse. 
"Uncle Joe," as the public nicknamed him, dated 
from before the Civil War, and entered Congress in 
1873, thirty-seven years before 1910. It was as if a 
rigid Bourbon, who had served under Louis XV in 
France in 1773, had been chief law-maker under 
Napoleon I in 18 10. Mr. Cannon, however, had 
never learned that the Civil War was over, whereas 
every Frenchman who survived the Revolution 
knew that it had taken place. So the Insurgents rose 
up against him, in his old age, deprived him of his 
dictatorial power, and, at the next election, Demo- 
crats and Republicans combined to sweep him out 
of office altogether. 

Skeptics who ridiculed Noah when he began to 
build the Ark were, it proved. Bourbons, but they 
had some excuse, for when Noah was working there 
was no portent of a flood and not even a black cloud 
with a shower wrapped up in it hung on the horizon. 
But the Republican Regulars, under Mr. Taft, could 
not complain that no sign had been vouchsafed to 
them. The amazing rise in power and popularity of 



344 THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

Roosevelt during the decade, the surging unrest of 
Labor throughout the world, the obviously altered 
conditions which immense fortunes and the amassing 
of wealth by a few corporations had produced, and 
such special symptoms as the chafing at the Payne- 
Aldrich Tariff, the defeat of Speaker Cannon, and 
the election of a Democratic House of Representa- 
tives ought to have warned even the dullest Repub- 
lican. For good, or for ill, a social and industrial 
revolution was under way, and, instead of trimming 
their sails to meet it, they had not even taken ship. 

Roosevelt and the Insurgents had long understood 
the revolution of which they were a part, and had 
taken measures to control it. Roosevelt's first 
achievement, as we have seen, was to bring the Big 
Interests under the power of the law. The hawks 
and vultures whose wings he clipped naturally did 
not like it or him, but the laws had force behind 
them, and they submitted. The leaders of the popu- 
lar movement, however, declared that this was not 
enough. They preached the right of the people to 
rule. The people, they urged, must have a real share 
in electing the men who were to make the laws and 
to administer and interpret them. 

Every one knew that the system of party govern- 
ment resulted in a Machine, consisting of a few men 
who controlled the preliminary steps which led to 



WHICH WAS THE REPUBLICAN PARTY ? 345 

the nomination of candidates and then decided the 
election, so far as their control of the regular party 
members could do this. It would be idle, said the 
advocates of these popular rights, to make the best 
of laws in behalf of the people and allow them to be 
enforced by representatives and judges chosen, under 
whatever disguise, by the great capitalists. And so 
these Progressives, bent on trusting implicitly the 
intelligence, the unselfishness, and the honesty of 
the People, proposed three novel political instru- 
ments for obtaining the pure Democracy they 
dreamed of. First, the Initiative, by which a certain 
number of voters could suggest new laws; second, 
the Referendum, by which a vote should be taken to 
decide whether the People approved or not of a law 
that was in operation; and third, the Judicial Re- 
call, by which a majority of the voters could nullify 
a decision handed down by a judge. This last was 
often misnamed and misconstrued, the "Recall of 
Judges," but so far as I know very few of the Pro- 
gressive leaders, certainly not Colonel Roosevelt, 
proposed to put the tenure of office of a judge at the 
mercy of a sudden popular vote. 

When Roosevelt returned from Africa, he found 
that the Progressive movement had developed rap- 
idly, and the more he thought over its principles, 
the more they appealed to him. To arrive at Social 



346 THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

Justice was his life-long endeavor. In a speech deliv- 
ered on August 31, 1 9 10, at Ossawatomie, Kansas, 
he discoursed on the "New Nationalism." As if to 
push back hostile criticism at the start, he quoted 
Abraham Lincoln: "Labor is prior to, and inde- 
pendent of capital ; capital is only the fruit of labor 
and could never have existed but for labor. Labor 
is the superior of capital and deserves much the 
higher consideration. Capital has its rights which 
are as worthy of protection as any other rights. . . . 
Nor should this lead to a war upon the owners of 
property. Property is the fruit of labor; property is 
desirable; it is a positive good in the world. Let not 
him who is houseless pull down the house of another, 
but let him work diligently and build one for him- 
self, thus, by example, showing that his own shall 
be safe from violence when built." 

Not all those who cry " Plato! Plato!" are Platon- 
ists. So, not all those who now appeal to Lincoln's 
mighty name for sanction of their own petty caprices 
and crazy creeds, have learned the first letter of the 
alphabet which Lincoln used; but Roosevelt, I be- 
lieve, knew Lincoln better, knew the spirit of Lin- 
coln better, than any other President has known it. 
And Lincoln would have approved of most, if not 
of all, of the measures which, in that Ossawatomie 
speech, Roosevelt declared must be adopted. When- 



WHICH WAS THE REPUBLICAN PARTY ? 347 

ever he spoke or wrote after that, he repeated his 
arguments in defense of the "New Nationalism," 
and they sank deep into the pubHc conscience. 

He took no active part in poHtics, as he thought, 
but the country knew better than he did that, wher- 
ever he was, poHtics was active. Every one consulted 
him ; his occasional speeches roused a storm of criti- 
cism ; a dozen would-be candidates in each party sat 
on the anxious seat and waited for his decision. So 
he watched the year 19 10 draw to its close and 191 1 
wheel by, without his giving the final word. Al- 
though he was very really the centre of attention, 
he nevertheless felt lonely, and a friend tells me of 
going to Oyster Bay, late in the autumn, and finding 
Roosevelt in fact alone, as his family were away, and 
depressed by the thought that he was cut off, prob- 
ably forever, from throwing himself into work which 
would be of public benefit. But Roosevelt was a 
fighter, not a sulker, and he was too healthy in spirit 
to give way to disappointment. 

That he resented the purpose, as he supposed, of 
the Taft Administration to throw over his policies, 
I do not doubt, although there are letters in exist- 
ence which indicate that he still had courteous if not 
friendly relations with President Taft. But what ate 
into him more than any personal resentment was 
his chagrin at seeing the Great Cause, for which he 



348 THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

had spent his Hfe, neglected and denied by the 
Republican Party. Progressivism seemed to be 
slowly in process of suffocation by the Big Interests 
which it had come into being to protest against, to 
curb, and to control. 

There were other leaders in this Cause, the most 
prominent being Senator La Follette, of Wisconsin. 
He had caught up very early some of Bryan's dema- 
gogic doctrines, which he had softened a good deal 
and made palatable to the Republicans of his State. 
Then he had stood out as a Liberal in Congress, and 
from Liberal he became Insurgent, and now that 
the Insurgents were being defined as Progressives, 
he led the Progressives in Congress. The same spirit 
was permeating the Democrats; only the hide-bound 
Regular Republicans appeared not to notice that a 
new day had dawned. "Uncle Joe" Cannon, their 
Speaker of the House, reveled in his Bourbonism, 
made it as obnoxious as he could, and then was 
swept away by the enraged Liberals. 

By the summer of 191 1 the discussion of possible 
candidates grew more heated. Roosevelt still kept 
silent, but he told his intimates that he would not 
run. He did not wish to be President again, especially 
at the cost of an internecine struggle. I believe that 
he was sincere; so is the consummate actor or the 
prima donna, whom the world applauds, sincere in 



WHICH WAS THE REPUBLICAN PARTY ? 349 

bidding farewell to the stage forever. Nevertheless, 
which of them is conscious of the strength of the 
passion, which long habit, and supremacy, and the 
intoxication of success have evoked, dwells in them? 
Given the moment and the lure, they forget their 
promise of farewell. 

By this time the politicians began to foresee that 
the dissension in the Republican Party would make 
it difficult to choose a candidate who could win. 
Every President desires to be reelected if he can be, 
not necessarily because he is greedy of power, but 
because reelection is equivalent to public approval 
of his first term. Mr. Taft, therefore, stood out as 
the logical candidate of the Conservatives. The 
great majority of the Progressives desired Roosevelt, 
but, since he would say neither yes nor no, they 
naturally turned to Senator La Follette. And La 
Follette launched a vigorous campaign for the nomi- 
nation and was undoubtedly gaining ground except 
in the East, where some of his views had been re- 
garded as too extreme even for the Liberals. To his 
great misfortune, in a speech at Philadelphia on 
February 2, 191 2, he showed signs of a temporary 
mental collapse and, although his friends protested 
that this mishap was not serious, much less perma- 
nent, he never got back into the running. 

Meanwhile, Roosevelt's nearest zealots not only 



350 THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

urged upon him the duty of coming out squarely as 
the Progressive aspirant, but they set up throughout 
the country their propaganda for him. He received 
letters by the bushel and every letter appealed to his 
patriotism and to his sense of duty. The Progressives 
were in dead earnest. They believed that the coun- 
try, if not civilization, had reached a crisis on the 
outcome of which would depend the future health 
and peace of Society. They had a crusade, not a 
mere political campaign, ahead of them, and they 
could not believe that Roosevelt, their peerless 
champion, would fail them. 

The average person, who calmly sits back in his 
easy-chair and passes his verdict on the acts of great 
men, does not always allow for the play of emotions 
which may have influenced them. What sort of reac- 
tion must appeals like these have stimulated? How 
can the unimaginative man, who has never been 
urged by his fellow townspeople to be even Trustee 
of the Town library or graveyard, put himself in the 
place of a Leader, who is told by millions of persons, 
possibly fanatics but not flatterers, that the destiny 
of the Nation depends upon his listening to their 
entreaties? 

Everything conspired to win Roosevelt over: La 
FoUette being eliminated, there was no other Pro- 
gressive whom the majority would agree upon. The 



WHICH WAS THE REPUBLICAN PARTY ? 351 

party spoke with only one voice, and uttered only 
one name. And, presently, the Governors of seven 
States — Bass of New Hampshire, Hadley of Mis- 
souri, Osborn of Michigan, Glasscock of West Vir- 
ginia, Carey of Wyoming, Aldrich of Nebraska, and 
Stubbs of Kansas — issued an appeal to him which 
seemed to give an official stamp to the popular en- 
treaties. Roosevelt's enemies insinuated that the 
seven Governors had been moved to act at his own 
instigation, and they tried to belittle the entire 
movement as a "frame-up," in the common phrase 
of the day. No doubt he was consulted in the general 
direction of the campaign; no doubt, being a very 
alert student of political effects, he suggested many 
things; but the rush of enthusiasts to him was gen- 
uine and spontaneous. 

I happened to spend the evening of February 25, 
1 91 2, with him at the house of Judge Robert Grant 
in Boston. Judge Grant and I were not politicians, 
and I, at least, had never voted for a Republican 
Presidential candidate. But both of us were very old 
personal friends of the Colonel, and for five hours 
we three talked with the utmost frankness. He knew 
that he could trust us, and, I think, he planned to 
get the views of non-partisan friends before an- 
nouncing his final decision. Three days earlier, at 
Columbus, Ohio, he gave a great speech, in which 



352 THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

he proclaimed a new charter for Democracy and 
vigorously advocated the Initiative, Referendum, 
and Recall. We discussed these from every side; he 
got the Outlook in which his speech was printed and 
read to us passages which he thought corrected pop- 
ular misunderstanding of it. When I objected to the 
platform in general, because it would tend to destroy 
representative government and substitute therefor 
the whims of the populace at the moment, he replied 
that we had no representative government. "I can 
name forty-six Senators," he said, "who secured 
their seats and hold them by the favor of a Wall 
Street magnate and his associates, in all parts of the 
country. Do you call that popular, representative 
government?" he asked. 

The evening wore on, and In similar fashion he 
parried all our criticism. We urged him not to be a 
candidate, because, we said, we thought that the 
public ought to be reined In and disciplined, instead 
of being encouraged to be more lawless and self- 
willed. I defended our judiciary system and said 
that the American people needed most of all to be 
taught respect for the Courts. He explained that his 
Recall of Judicial Decisions did not mean, as the 
Opposition alleged, the Recall of Judges. Then we 
urged him, for the sake of his own future, not to 
engage in a factional strife which might end his use- 



WHICH WAS THE REPUBLICAN PARTY ? 353 

fulness to the country, but he brushed aside every 
argument based on his selfish advantage. "I wish," 
he said to me, "to draw into one dominant stream 
all the intelligent and patriotic elements, in order to 
prepare against the social upheaval which will other- 
wise overwhelm us." "A great Central Party, such 
as Cavour founded for the liberation of Italy?" 
said I. "Exactly," said he. 

The thing which mainly struck me at the time, 
and which I still vividly remember, was the Colonel's 
composure throughout all this debate. Vehement he 
was — because he could not describe even a butterfly 
without vividness which easily passed into vehe- 
mence — but he was in no sense mentally over- 
wrought; nor did he continually return to one sub- 
ject like a man with an obsession. His humor flashed 
out, even at his own expense, but he had throughout 
the underlying gravity of one who knows that he is 
about to make a very important decision. I mention 
these facts because at the time, and afterward, 
Roosevelt's enemies circulated the assertion that 
his mind was unbalanced, and that this fact ac- 
counted for his break with the regular Republicans. 
I have in my hand a printed circular, issued by a 
Chicago lawyer, offering five thousand dollars apiece 
to each of several hospitals and other charitable 
institutions, if Roosevelt would allow himself to be 



354 THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

examined by competent alienists and they did not 
pronounce him to be a "madman"! No! he was not 
mad, but he had the fervor, the courage, the im- 
patience of a Crusader about to undergo ordeal by 
battle. 

From notes of the conversation Judge Grant made 
at the time I quote the following. Judge Grant asked: 

"Will any of the party leaders support you?" 
*'No," he said, "none of them; not even Lodge, I think. I 
don't see how he can. My support will come from the people, 
officered by a few lieutenants — young men principally like 
Governor Bass, of New Hampshire." He said that he realized 
that the probabilities were all against his nomination ; that a 
President in office had all the machinery on his side; but that 
of course it wouldn't do to admit outside that he expected to 
lose; that if he could reach the popular vote through direct 
primaries, he could hope to win. It was manifest that he be- 
lieved that it was indispensable for the future good of the Re- 
publican Party that he should make the breach. When he 
said as much, I asked, "But the situation is complex, I sup- 
pose? You would like to be President?" "You are right," he 
replied. " It is complex. I like power; but I care nothing to be 
President as President. I am interested in these ideas of mine 
and I want to carry them through, and feel that I am the one 
to carry them through." He said that he believed the most 
important questions today were the humanitarian and eco- 
nomic problems, and intimated that the will of the people 
had been thwarted in these ways, especially by the courts on 
constitutional grounds, and that reforms were urgent. 

As I went out into the midnight, I felt sad, as 
one might after bidding farewell to a friend who has 
volunteered to lead a forlorn hope. I did not realize 



WHICH WAS THE REPUBLICAN PARTY ? 355 
then the moral depth from which Roosevelt's re- 
solve came, or that he would rather die for that 
cause than be victorious in any other. 

The next day, Monday, February 26th, he an- 
nounced to the country that he was a candidate for 
the Republican nomination. 



CHAPTER XXII 

THE TWO CONVENTIONS 

DURING the weeks while Roosevelt had been 
deliberating over "throwing his hat into the 
ring," his opponents had been busily gathering dele- 
gates. By this delay they gained a strategic advan- 
tage. According to the unholy custom which gave 
to the Republicans in the Southern States a quota 
of delegates proportioned to the population and not 
to the number of Republican voters, a large Southern 
delegation was pledged for Mr. Taft very early. 
Most of the few Southern Republicans were either 
office-holders or negroes; the former naturally sup- 
ported the Administration on which their living 
depended; the latter, whose votes were not counted, 
also supported the President from whom alone they 
might expect favors. The former slave States elected 
216 delegates, nearly all of whom went to President 
Taft, making a very good start for him. In the 
Northern, Western, and Pacific States, however, 
Roosevelt secured a large proportion of the dele- 
gates. In the system of direct primaries, by which 
the people indicated their preference instead of hav- 
ing the candidates chosen in the State Conventions, 



THE TWO CONVENTIONS 357 

which were controlled by the Machine, the Progres- 
sives came out far ahead. Thus, in North Dakota, 
President Taft had less than 4000 votes out of 48,000 
cast, the rest going to Roosevelt and La Follette. In 
several of the great States he carried everything 
before him. In Illinois, his majority was 139,000 
over Taf t's ; in Pennsylvania, 67 of the 76 delegates 
went to him. In Ohio, the President's own State, the 
Taft forces were "snowed under"; in California, a 
stronghold of Progressivism, Roosevelt had a large 
plurality. Nevertheless, wherever the Regulars con- 
trolled the voting, they usually brought President 
Taft to the front. Even when they could not produce 
the votes, they managed to send out contesting 
delegations. 

On looking back. It appears indisputable that If 
the Republicans could then have cast their ballots 
they would have been overwhelmingly for Roose- 
velt; and if the Roosevelt delegates to the Conven- 
tion had not been hampered In voting, they too 
would have nominated him. But the elections had 
been so artfully manipulated that, when the Con- 
vention met, there were 220 contests. Everybody 
understood that the final result hung on the way In 
which these should be decided. 

The Convention assembled in the great Coliseum 
Hall at Chicago on June 18, 1912. But for ten days 



358 THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

the hosts had been coming in, one delegation after 
another; the hotels were packed; each committee 
had its special quarters; crowds of sight-seers, shout- 
ers, and supporters swelled the multitude. The Re- 
publican National Committee met; the managers of 
each candidate met. The committees, which had not 
yet an official standing, conferred unofficially. Ru- 
mors floated from every room; there were secret 
conferences, attempts to win over delegates, prom- 
ises to trade votes, and even efforts at concilia- 
tion. Night and day this wild torrent of excitement 
rushed on. 

A spectator from Mars might have remarked: 
"But for so important a business as the choice of a 
candidate who may become President of the United 
States, you ought to have quiet, deliberation, free 
play, not for those who can shout loudest, but for 
those who can speak wisest." And to this remark, 
the howling and whirling dervishes who attended 
the Convention would have replied, if they had 
waited long enough to hear it through, by yelling, 

"Hail! Hail! the gang's all here! 
What the hell do we care? 
What the hell do we care? " 

and would have darted off to catch up with their fel- 
low Bacchanals. A smell of cocktails and of whiskey 
was ubiquitous; a dense pall of tobacco smoke per- 



THE TWO CONVENTIONS 359 

vaded the committee-rooms; and out of doors the 
clang of brass bands drowned even the incessant 
noise of the throngs. There was no night, for the 
myriads of electric lights made shadows but no dark- 
ness, and you wondered when these strange crea- 
tures slept. 

Such Saturnalia did not begin with the Conven- 
tion of 1 91 2. Most of those who took part in them 
hardly thought it a paradox that these should be 
the conditions under which the Americans nomi- 
nated their candidates for President. 

Roosevelt had not intended to appear at the 
Convention, but when he discovered that the long- 
distance telephone from Chicago to Oyster Bay, by 
which his managers conferred with him, was being 
tapped, he changed his mind. He perceived, also, 
that there was a lack of vigorous leadership among 
those managers which demanded his presence. By 
going, he would call down much adverse criticism, 
even from some of those persons whose support he 
needed. On the other hand, he would immensely 
strengthen his cause in Chicago, where the mere 
sight of him would stimulate enthusiasm. 

So he and Mrs. Roosevelt took the five- thirty 
afternoon train to Chicago, on Friday, June 14th, 
leaving as privately as possible, and accompanied 
by seven or eight of their children and cousins. Late 



36o THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

on Saturday, the train, having narrowly escaped 
being wrecked by an accident, reached Chicago. At 
the station there was an enormous crowd. Roose- 
velt's young kinsmen kept very close to him and 
wedged their way to an automobile. With the great- 
est difficulty his car slowly proceeded to the Con- 
gress Hotel. Never was there such a furor of welcome. 
Everybody wore a Roosevelt button. Everybody 
cheered for "Teddy." Here and there they passed 
State delegations bearing banners and mottoes. 
Rough Riders, who had come in their well-worn uni- 
forms, added to the Rooseveltian exultation. Who- 
ever judged by this demonstration must think it 
impossible that the Colonel could be defeated. 

After he and his party had been shown to the 
suites reserved for them, he went out on the balcony 
of a second-floor room and spoke a few words to the 
immense multitude waiting below. He said, in sub- 
stance, that he was glad to find from their cheers 
that Chicago did not believe in the thieves who stole 
delegates. Some who saw him say that his face was 
red with anger; others aver that he was no more 
vehement than usual, and simply strained himself 
to the utmost to make his voice carry throughout his 
audience. Still, if he said what they report, he was 
not politic. 

Then followed days and nights of incessant strain. 



THE TWO CONVENTIONS 361 

The Colonel and Mrs. Roosevelt had their personal 
apartment in the northeast corner of the hotel, at 
some distance from the Florentine Room, which 
served as the official headquarters for the Progres- 
sives. He had, besides, a private office with a recep- 
tion-room, and Tyree, one of the devoted detectives 
who had served under him in old times, carefully 
guarded the entrance. There was hardly a moment 
when one or two persons were not closeted with him. 
Occasionally, he would come out into the reception- 
room and speak to the throng waiting there. No 
matter what the news, no matter how early or late 
the hour, he was always cheerful, and the mere sight 
of him brought joy and confidence to his followers. 
The young kinsmen went everyw^here and brought 
back reports of what they had seen or heard. One of 
them kept a diary of the events as they whirled past, 
hour by hour, and in this one can note many of the 
fleeting but vivid touches, which recall to the reader 
now the reality of those feverish days. He attended 
a big Taft rally at the Taft headquarters. Bell-boys 
ran up and down the hotel corridors announcing 
it. "After each announcement," writes the young 
cousin, "a group of Roosevelt men would cry out, 
'All postmasters attend!"* Two Taftites spoke 
briefly and "were greeted by a couple of hand- 
claps apiece; and then the star performer of the 



362 THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

evening was announced in the most glowing terms 
as a model of political propriety, and the foremost 
and most upright citizen of the United States — 
William Barnes, Jr., of Albany." Mr. Barnes was 
supposed, at that time, to lead the New York Repub- 
lican Machine. "We have got to save the country," 
he said, "save the constitution, save our liberty. 
We are in danger of monarchy. The country must be 
saved!!" The Roosevelt cousin thought that he 
spoke "without fervor to a listless, sedate, and very 
polite audience. It was made all the more preposter- 
ous by the fact that a very ancient colored gentle- 
man stood back of Barnes, and whenever Barnes 
paused, would point to the crowd and feebly begin 
clapping his hands. They would then slowly and 
very politely take up the applause, in every case 
waiting for his signal. It was almost pathetic." 

At one time the Roosevelt scouts alleged that 
"Timothy Woodruff is wavering, with four other 
delegates, and will soon fall to us," and told "of dele- 
gates flopping over, here and there." A still more ex- 
traordinary piece of news came from Hooker to the 
effect that he had in some way intercepted a tele- 
gram "from Murray Crane to his nephew saying 
that Crane and Barnes would 'fight or ruin' and 
that it was now 'use any means and sacrifice the 
Republican Party.' Had it not been for the way he 



THE TWO CONVENTIONS 363 

told us, I could n't have believed such a thing 
possible." 

Rumors like these were not verified at the time, 
and they are assuredly unverifiable now. I repeat 
them merely to show how suspense and excitement 
were constantly fed before the Convention met. 
Remembering how long ex-Senator Crane and Mr. 
Barnes had had their hands on the throttle of the 
Republican Machine, we are not surprised at the 
young Rooseveltian's statement: "The Taft forces 
control anything that has to do with machinery, but 
all the feeling is for Roosevelt, and the Congress 
Hotel, at any rate, favors the 'Big Noise,' as you 
will sometimes hear him called in the lobbies or in 
the streets." Apparently, stump speeches were made 
at any moment, and without provocation, in any 
hall, room, or lobby of the hotel, by any one who 
felt the spirit move him; and, lest silence should 
settle down and soothe the jaded nerves, a band 
would strike up unexpectedly. The marching to and 
fro of unrestrained gangs, shouting, "We-want- 
Teddy!" completed the pandemonium. 

Monday came. The young scouts were as busy as 
ever in following the trails which led to Taft activ- 
ities. The news they had to tell was always very 
cheering. They found little enthusiasm among the 
President's supporters. They heard, from the most 



364 THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

trustworthy sources, that this or that Taf t leader or 
delegation was coming over. And, in truth, the Taft 
body probably did not let off a tenth of the noise 
which their opponents indulged in. The shallows 
murmur, but the deeps are dumb, does not exactly 
apply to the two opposing hosts. The Taft men re- 
sorted very little to shouting, because they knew 
that if they were to win at all it must be by other 
means. The Rooseveltians, on the other hand, really 
felt a compelling surge of enthusiasm which they 
must uncork. 

Meanwhile Colonel Roosevelt and his lieutenants 
knew that the enemy was perfecting his plan to de- 
feat them. On Monday evening his zealots packed 
the Auditorium and he poured himself out to them 
in one of his torrential speeches calculated to rouse 
the passions rather than the minds of his hearers. 
But it fitly symbolized the situation. He, the daunt- 
less leader, stood there, the soul of sincerity and 
courage, impressing upon them all that they were 
engaged in a most solemn cause and defying the 
opposition as if it were a legion of evil spirits. His 
closing words — "We stand at Armageddon and 
we battle for the Lord" — summed it all up so com- 
pletely that the audience burst into a roar of ap- 
proval, and never doubted that he spoke the truth. 

Tuesday at noon, a crowd of fifteen thousand per- 



THE TWO CONVENTIONS 365 

sons, delegates and visitors, packed the vast Con- 
vention Hall of the Coliseum. Mr. Victor Rosewater, 
of Nebraska, presided at the opening. As it was 
known that the Republican National Committee in- 
tended to place on the temporary roll of delegates 
seventy-two names of persons whose seats were 
contested, Governor Hadley, of Missouri, made a mo- 
tion that only those delegates, whose right was not 
contested, should sit and vote during the prelimi- 
nary proceedings. Had he been successful, the Regu- 
lars would have lost the battle from the beginning. 
But he was ruled out of order on the ground that the 
only business before the Convention was the election 
of a Temporary Chairman. This took place, and Sen- 
ator Root, from New York, was elected by 558 votes; 
McGovern, the Roosevelt candidate, received 501 
votes; there were 14 scattering, and 5 persons did 
not vote. Senator Root, therefore, won his election 
by 38 votes over the combined opposition, but his 
plurality was secured by the votes of the 72 whose 
seats were contested. 

During the three following days the Roosevelt 
men fought desperately to secure what they believed 
to be justice. They challenged every delegate, they 
demanded a roll-call on the slightest excuse, they 
deluged the Regulars with alternate showers of sar- 
casm and anger. But it availed them nothing. They 



366 THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

soon perceived that victory lay with the Republican 
National Committee, which had the organization of 
the Convention and the framing of the rules of pro- 
cedure. The Taft people, the Regulars, controlled 
the National Committee, and they knew that the 
rules would do the rest, especially since the Chair- 
man of the Convention, Senator Root, was the inter- 
preter of the rules. 

At no other National Convention in American his- 
tory did a Chairman keep his head and his temper 
so admirably as did Mr. Root on this occasion. His 
intellect, burning with a cold, white light, illumined 
every point, but betrayed no heat of passion. He ap- 
plied the rules as impartially as if they were theorems 
of algebra. Time after time the Rooseveltians pro- 
tested against the holders of contested seats to vote, 
but he was unmoved because the rule prescribed 
that the person had a right to vote. When the con- 
tests were taken up, the Taft men always won, the 
Roosevelt men always lost. The Machine went as if 
by clock-work or like the guillotine. More than once 
some Rooseveltian leader, like Governor Hadley, 
stung by a particularly shocking display of over- 
bearing injustice, taunted the majority with shouts 
of "Robbers" and "Theft." Roars of passion swept 
through the hall. The derision of the minority was 
countered by the majority with equal vigor, but the 



THE TWO CONVENTIONS 367 

majority did not always feel, in spite of its truculent 
manner, confident of the outcome. 

By what now seems shameless theft, the Creden- 
tials Committee approved the seating of two Taft 
delegates from California, in spite of the fact that the 
proper offtcials of that State had certified that its 
twenty-six delegates were all for Roosevelt, and had 
been elected by a majority of 76,000 votes. Chairman 
Root put the question to the Convention, however, 
and those two discredited delegates were admitted 
for Taft by a vote of 542 to 529. This indicates how 
close the Convention then stood, when a change of 
seven votes would have given Roosevelt a majority 
of one and have added to his list the two California 
delegates who were counted out. Had such a change 
taken place, those who watched the Convention 
believed there would have been a "landslide" to 
Roosevelt. But the Republican Committee's sorely 
tested rules held. After that, the Rooseveltians saw 
no gleam of hope. 

On Saturday, June 22d, the list of delegates to the 
Convention having been drawn up as the Republican 
Machine intended, Mr. Taft was nominated by a 
vote of 561; Roosevelt received 107, La FoUette 
41, Cummins 17, Hughes 2; 344 delegates did not 
vote. The last were all Roosevelt men, but they had 
been requested by Roosevelt to refuse to vote. 



368 THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

Through Mr. Henry J. Allen, of Kansas, he sent 
this message: 

The Convention has now declined to purge the roll of the 
fraudulent delegates placed thereon by the defunct National 
Committee, and the majority which thus endorsed fraud was 
made a majority only because it included the fraudulent dele- 
gates themselves, who all sat as judges on one another's cases. 
If these fraudulent votes had not thus been cast and counted 
the Convention would have been purged of their presence. 
This action makes the Convention in no proper sense any 
longer a Republican Convention representing the real Re- 
publican Party. Therefore, I hope the men elected as Roose- 
velt delegates will now decline to vote on any matter before 
the Convention. I do not release any delegate from his hon- 
orable obligation to vote for me if he votes at all, but under 
the actual conditions I hope that he will not vote at all. 

The Convention as now composed has no claim to represent 
the voters of the Republican Party. It represents nothing but 
successful fraud in overriding the will of the rank and file of 
the party. Any man nominated by the Convention as now 
constituted would be merely the beneficiary of this successful 
fraud ; it would be deeply discreditable to any man to accept 
the Convention's nomination under these circumstances; and 
any man thus accepting it would have no claim to the support 
of any Republican on party grounds, and would have forfeited 
the right to ask the support of any honest man of any party 
on moral grounds. 

Mr. Allen concluded with these words of his own: 

We do not bolt. We merely insist that you, not we, are 
making the record. And we refuse to be bound by it. We have 
pleaded with you ten days. We have fought with you five 
days for a square deal. We fight no more, we plead no longer. 
We shall sit in protest and the people who sent us here shall 
judge us. 



THE TWO CONVENTIONS 369 

Gentlemen, you accuse us of being radical. Let me tell you 
that no radical in the ranks of radicalism ever did so radical 
a thing as to come to a National Convention of the great 
Republican Party and secure through fraud the nomination 
of a man whom they knew could not be elected.^ 

Every night during that momentous week the 
Roosevelt delegates met in the Congress Hotel, 
talked over the day's proceedings, gave vent to their 
indignation, confirmed each other's resolution, and 
took a decision as to their future action. The powerful 
Hiram Johnson, Governor of California, led them, 
and through his eloquence he persuaded all but 107 
of them to stand by Roosevelt whether he were nom- 
inated by the Convention or not. 

And this they did. For when the vote for the nom- 
ination was taken at the Convention only 107 of the 
Roosevelt men cast their ballots. They favored 
Roosevelt, but they were not prepared to quit the 
Republican Party. During the roll-call the Roose- 
velt delegates from Massachusetts refused to vote. 
Thereupon, Mr. Root, the Chairman, ruled that they 
must vote, to which Frederick Fosdick replied, when 
his name was read again, " Present, and not voting. I 
defy the Convention to make me vote for any man " ; 
and seventeen other Roosevelt delegates refrained. 
Mr. Root then called up the alternates of these ab- 

1 Fifteenth Republican National Convention (New York, 1912), 333, 
335- 



370 THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

stainers and three of them recorded their votes for 
Taft, but there was such a demonstration against 
this ruHng that Mr. Root thought better of it and 
proceeded in it no farther. Many of his RepubUcan 
associates at the time thought this action high- 
handed and unjustified, and many more agree in 
this opinion today. 

Except for this grave error, Mr. Root's ruHngs 
were strictly according to the precedents and di- 
rections of the RepubHcan National Committee, and 
we may believe that even he saw the sardonic humor 
of his unvarying application of them at the expense of 
the Rooseveltians. Before the first day's session was 
over, the process was popularly called the "steam 
roller." Late in the week, a delegate rose to a point 
of order, and on being recognized by the Chairman, 
he shouted that he wished to call the attention of the 
Chairman to the fact that the steam roller was ex- 
ceeding its speed limit, at which Mr. Root replied, 
"The Chairman rules that the gentleman's point of 
order is well taken." And everybody laughed. 

There was one dramatic moment which, as Dean 
Lewis remarks, has had no counterpart in a National 
Convention. When the Machine had succeeded, in 
spite of protests and evidence, in stealing the two 
delegates from California, the friends of Mr. Taft 
gave triumphant cheers. Then the Roosevelt men 



THE TWO CONVENTIONS 371 

rose up as one man and sent forth a mighty cheer 
which astonished their opponents. It was a cheer in 
which were mingled indignation and scorn, and, 
above all, relief. Strictly interpreted, it meant that 
those men who had sat for four days and seen their 
wishes thwarted, by what they regarded as fraud, 
and had held on in the belief that this fraud could 
not continue to the end, that a sense of fairness would 
return and rule the Regulars, now realized that Fraud 
would concede nothing and that their Cause was 
lost. And they felt a great load lifted. No obligation 
bound them any longer to the Republican Party 
which had renounced honesty in its principles and 
fair play in its practice. Henceforth they could go 
out and take any step they chose to promote their 
Progressive doctrines.^ 

Shortly after the Convention adjourned, having,, 
by these methods, nominated Mr. Taft and James S. 
Sherman for President and Vice-President, the Roose- 
veltians held a great meeting in Orchestra Hall. 
Governor Johnson presided and apparently a major- 
ity of the Rooseveltians wished, then and there, to 
organize a new party and to nominate Roosevelt as 
its candidate. Several men made brief but earnest 
addresses. Then Roosevelt himself spoke, and al- 
though he lacked nothing of his usual vehemence, 

1 Lewis, 363. 



372 THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

he seemed to be controlled by a sense of the solem- 
nity of their purpose. He told them that it was no 
more a question of Progressivism, which he ardently 
believed in, but a question of fundamental honesty 
and right, which everybody ought to believe in and 
uphold. He advised them to go to their homes, to 
discuss the crisis with their friends; to gain what ad- 
herence and support they could, and to return in two 
months and formally organize their party and nom- 
inate their candidate for President. And he added: 
"If you wish me to make the fight, I will make it, 
even if only one State should support me. The only 
condition I impose is that you shall feel entirely free, 
when you come together, to substitute any other 
man in my place, if you deem it better for the move- 
ment, and in such case, I will give him my heartiest 
support." 

And so the defeated majority of the Republicans 
at Chicago, Republicans no longer, broke up. There 
were many earnest hand-shakings, many pledges to 
meet again in August, and to take up the great work. 
Those who intended to stay by the Republican Party, 
not less than those who cast their lot with the Pro- 
gressives, bade farewell, with deep emotion, to the 
Leader whom they had wished to see at the head of 
the Republican Party. Chief among these was Gov- 
ernor Hadley, of Missouri, who at one moment, dur- 



THE TWO CONVENTIONS 373 

ing the Convention, seemed likely to be brought for- 
ward by the Regulars as a compromise candidate. 
Some of the Progressives resented his defection from 
them; not so Roosevelt, who said: "He will not be 
with us, but we must not blame him." 

Six weeks later, the Progressives returned to Chi- 
cago. Again, Roosevelt had his headquarters at the 
Congress Hotel. Again, the delegates, among whom 
were several women, met at the Coliseum. Crowds of 
enthusiastic supporters and larger crowds of curiosity- 
seekers swarmed into the vast building. On Monday, 
August 5, the first session of the Progressive Party's 
Convention was held. Senator Albert J. Beveridge, 
of Indiana, made the opening address, in which he 
defined the principles of their party and the objects 
it hoped to obtain. Throughout the proceedings 
there was much enthusiasm, but no battle. It was 
rather the gathering of several thousand very ear- 
nest men and women bent on consecrating them- 
selves to a new Cause, which they believed to be the 
paramount Cause for the political, economic, and 
social welfare of their country. Nearly all of them 
were Idealists, eager to secure the victory of some 
special reform. And, no doubt, an impartial observer 
might have detected among them traces of that 
"lunatic fringe," which Roosevelt himself had long 
ago humorously remarked clung to the skirts of every 



374 THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

reform. But the whole body, judged without preju- 
dice, probably contained the largest number of disin- 
terested, public-spirited, and devoted persons, who 
had ever met for a national and political object since 
the group which formed the Republican Party in 

1854. 

The professional politician who usually prepon- 
derates in such Conventions, and, in the last, had 
usurped control both of the proceedings and decisions, 
had little place here. The chief topic of discussion 
turned on the admission of negro delegates from the 
South. Roosevelt believed that an attempt to create 
a negro Progressive Party, as such, would alienate 
the Southern whites and would certainly sharpen 
their hostility towards the blacks. Therefore, he ad- 
vised that the negro delegates ought to be approved 
by the White Progressives in their several districts. 
In other words, the Progressive Party in the South 
should be a white party with such colored members 
as the whites found acceptable. 

On Monday and Tuesday the work done in the 
Convention was much less Important than that done 
by the Committee on Resolutions and by the Com- 
mittee on Credentials. On Wednesday the Conven- 
tion heard and adopted the Platform and then ncml- 
nated Roosevelt by acclamation. Miss Jane Addams, 
of Hull House, Chicago, seconded the nomination, 



THE TWO CONVENTIONS 375 

praising Roosevelt as "one of the few men in our 
public life who has been responsive to modern move- 
ment." "The program, " she said, "will need a leader 
of invincible courage, of open mind, of democratic 
sympathies — one endowed with power to inter- 
pret the common man, and to identify himself with 
the common lot." Governor Hiram Johnson, from 
California, was nominated for Vice-President. Over 
the platform, to which the candidates were escorted, 
hung Kipling's stanza: 

"For there is neither East nor West, 
Border nor breed nor birth, 
When two strong men stand face to face, 

Though they come from the ends of the earth." 

Portraits of Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln, Jackson, 
and Hamilton, a sufficiently inclusive group of patri- 
ots, looked down upon them. After Roosevelt and 
Johnson addressed the audience, the trombones 
sounded "Old Hundred" and the great meeting 
closed to the words — 

"Praise God from whom all blessings flow." 

The Progressive Platform contained many planks 
which have since been made laws by the Democratic 
Party, which read the signs of the times more quickly 
than did the Republicans. Especially many of the 
suggestions relating to Labor, the improvement of 
the currency, the control of corporate wealth, and 



376 THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

oversight over public hygiene, should be commended. 
In general, it promised to bring the Government 
nearer to the people by giving the people a more and 
more direct right over the Government. It declared 
for a rational tariff and the creation of a non-partisan 
Tariff Commission of experts, and it denounced 
alike the Republicans for the Payne-Aldrich Bill, 
which dishonestly revised upwards, and the Demo- 
crats, who wished to abolish protection altogether. 
It urged proper military and naval preparation and 
the building of two battleships a year — a plank 
which we can imagine Roosevelt wrote in with pecul- 
iar satisfaction. It advocated direct primaries; the 
conservation of natural resources; woman suffrage. 
So rapidly has the country progressed in seven 
years that most of the recommendations have al- 
ready been adopted, and are among the common- 
places which nobody disputes any longer. But the 
Initiative, the Referendum, and the Recall of Judi- 
cial Decisions were the points, as I remarked above, 
over which the country debated most hotly. The Re- 
call, in particular, created a widespread alarm, and 
just as Roosevelt's demand for it in his Columbus 
speech prevented, as I believe, his nomination by the 
Republican Convention in June, so it deprived the 
Progressives at the election in November of scores of 
thousands of votes. The people of the United States 



THE TWO CONVENTIONS 377 

■ — every person who owned a bit of property, a stock 
or a bond, or who had ten dollars or more in the sav- 
ings bank — looked upon it almost with consterna- 
tion. For they knew that they were living in a time of 
flux, when old standards were melting away like snow 
images in the sun, when new ideals, untried and based 
on the negation of some of the oldest principles in 
our civilization, were being pushed forward. They in- 
stinctively rallied to uphold Law, the slow product 
of centuries of growth, the sheet anchor of Society 
in a time of change. Where could we look for solidity, 
or permanence, if judicial decisions could be recalled 
at the caprice of the mob — the hysterical, the un- 
instructed, the fickle mob? The opinion of one 
trained and honest judge outweighs the whims of 
ten thousand of the social dregs. 

The Recall of Judicial Decisions, therefore, caused 
many of Roosevelt's friends, and even Republicans 
who would otherwise have supported him, to balk. 
They not only rejected the proposal itself, but they 
feared that he, by making it, indicated that he had 
lost his judgment and was being swept into the vor- 
tex of revolution. Judges and courts and respect for 
law, like lighthouses on granite foundations, must be 
kept safe from the fluctuations of tides and the 
crash of tempests. 

The campaign which followed is chiefly remark- 



378 THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

able for Roosevelt's amazing activity. He felt that 
the success of the Progressive Party at the polls de- 
pended upon him as its Leader. The desire for per- 
sonal success in any contest into which he plunged 
would have been a great incentive, but this was a 
cause which dwarfed any personal considerations of 
his. Senator Joseph M. Dixon, of Montana, managed 
the campaign; Roosevelt himself gave it a dynamic 
impulse which never flagged. He went to the Pacific 
Coast, speaking at every important centre on the 
way, and returning through the Southern States to 
New York City. In September he swept through 
New England, and he was making a final tour 
through the Middle West, when, on October 14th, 
just as he was leaving his hotel to make a speech in 
the Auditorium in Milwaukee, a lunatic named John 
Schranck shot him with a revolver. The bullet en- 
tered his body about an inch below the right nipple 
and would probably have been fatal but for an eye- 
glass-case and a roll of manuscript he had in his 
pocket. Before the assassin could shoot again, his 
hand was caught and deflected by the Colonel's 
secretary. "Don't hurt the poor creature," Roose- 
velt said, when Schranck was overpowered and 
brought before him. Not knowing the extent of his 
wound, and waiting only long enough to return to 
his hotel room and change his white shirt, as the 



THE TWO CONVENTIONS 379 

bosom of the one he had on was soaked with blood, 
and disregarding the entreaties of his companions to 
stay quiet, he went to the Auditorium and spoke for 
more than an hour. Only towards the end did the 
audience perceive that he showed signs of fatigue. 
This extraordinary performance was most foolhardy, 
and some of his carping critics said that, as usual, 
Roosevelt wanted to be theatrical. But there was no 
such purpose in him. He felt to the depths of his soul 
that neither his safety nor that of any other indi- 
vidual counted in comparison with the triumph of 
the Cause he was fighting for. 

After a brief examination the surgeons stated that 
he had better be removed to the Mercy Hospital in 
Chicago. They put him on his special car and by an 
incredible negligence they sent him off to make the 
night journey without any surgical attendant. On 
reaching the Mercy Hospital, Dr. Ryan made a 
further examination and reported that there seemed 
to be no immediate danger, although he could not 
be sure whether the Colonel would live or not. 
Roosevelt, who was advertised to make a great 
speech in Louisville, Kentucky, that evening, sum- 
moned Senator Beveridge and sent him off with the 
manuscript of the address to take his place. Mrs. 
Roosevelt reached Chicago by the first train possi- 
ble, and stayed with him while he underwent, impa- 



38o THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

tiently, nearly a fortnight's convalescence. Then, 
much sooner than the surgeons thought wise, al- 
though his wound had healed with remarkable speed, 
he returned to Oyster Bay, and on October 30th he 
closed his campaign by addressing sixteen thousand 
persons in the Madison Square Garden. He spoke 
with unwonted calm and judicial poise; and so ear- 
nestly that the conviction which he felt carried con- 
viction to many who heard him. " I am glad beyond 
measure," he said, "that I am one of the many who 
in this fight have stood ready to spend and be spent, 
pledged to fight, while life lasts, the great fight for 
righteousness and for brotherhood and for the wel- 
fare of mankind." 

President Taft and the members of his Cabinet 
took little or no active part in the campaign. Indeed, 
the Republicans seemed unable to arouse enthusi- 
asm. They relied upon their past victories and the 
robust campaign fund, which the Interests gladly 
furnished. The Democratic candidate was Woodrow 
Wilson, Governor of New Jersey, who had been pro- 
fessor at Princeton University, and then its president. 
As Governor, he had commended himself by fighting 
the Machine, and by advocating radical measures. 
As candidate, he asserted his independence by de- 
claring that "a party platform is not a program." 
He spoke effectively, and both he and his party 



THE TWO CONVENTIONS 381 

had the self-complacency that comes to persons who 
believe that they are sure to win. And how could 
their victory be in doubt since the united Democrats 
had for opponents the divided Republicans? When 
Colonel Roosevelt was shot, Governor Wilson mag- 
nanimously announced that he would make no more 
speeches. Roosevelt objected to this, believing that 
a chance accident to him, personally, ought not to 
stop any one from criticising him politically. "What- 
ever could with truth and propriety have been said 
against me and my cause before I was shot, can," he 
urged, "with equal truth and equal propriety, be 
said against me now, and it should so be said; and 
the things that cannot be said now are merely the 
things that ought not to have been said before. This 
is not a contest about any man ; it is a contest con- 
cerning principles." 

At the election on November 5th, Wilson was 
elected by 6,286,000 votes out of 15,310,000 votes, 
thus being a minority President by two million and 
a half votes. Roosevelt received 4,126,000 and Taft 
3,483,000 votes. The combined vote of what had 
been the Republican Party amounted to 7,609,000 
votes, or 1,323,000 more than those received by Mr. 
Wilson. When it came to the Electoral College, the 
result was even more significant. Wilson had 435, 
Roosevelt 88, and Taft, thanks to Vermont and 



382 THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

Utah, secured 8 votes. Roosevelt carried Pennsyl- 
vania the rock-bound Republican State, Missouri 
which was usually Democratic, South Dakota, 
Washington, Michigan, and eleven out of the thir- 
teen votes of California. These figures, analyzed 
calmly, after the issues and passions have cooled into 
history, indicate two things. First, the amazing per- 
sonal popularity of Roosevelt, who, against the oppo- 
sition of the Republican Machine and all its ramifi- 
cations, had so easily defeated President Taft, the 
candidate of that Machine. And secondly, it proved 
that Roosevelt, and not Taft, really represented a 
large majority of what had been the Republican 
Party. Therefore, it was the Taft faction which, in 
spite of the plain evidence given at the choice of the 
delegates, and at the Convention itself — evidence 
which the Machine tried to ignore and suppress — 
it was the Taft faction and not Roosevelt which 
split the Republican Party in 1912. 

Had it allowed the preference of the majority to 
express itself by the nomination of Roosevelt, there 
is every reason to believe that he would have been 
elected. For we must remember that the Democratic 
Platform was hardly less progressive than that of 
the Progressives themselves. Counting the Wilson 
and the Roosevelt vote together, we find 10,412,000 
votes were cast for Progressive principles against 



THE TWO CONVENTIONS 383 

3,483,000 votes for the reactionary Conservatives. 
And yet the gray wolves of the RepubHcan Party, and 
its Old Guard, and its Machine, proclaimed to the 
country that its obsolescent doctrines represented 
the desires and the ideals of the United States in 
1912! 

Although the campaign, as conducted by the 
Republicans, seemed listless, it did not lack venom. 
Being a family fight between the Taft men and the 
Roosevelt men, it had the bitterness which family 
quarrels develop. Mr. Taft and most of his Secre- 
taries had known the methods of Mr. Roosevelt and 
his Ministers. They could counter, therefore, charges 
of incompetence and indifference by recalling the 
inconsistencies, or worse, of Roosevelt's regime. 
When the Progressives charged the Taft Adminis- 
tration with being easy on the Big Interests, Attor- 
ney-General Wickersham resorted to a simple sum 
in arithmetic in order to contradict them, showing 
that whereas Roosevelt began forty-four Anti-Trust 
suits, and concluded only four important cases dur- 
ing his seven and a half years in office, under Taft 
sixty-six new suits were begun and many of the old 
ones were successfully concluded. Some great cases, 
like that of the Standard Oil and of the Railroad 
Rates, had been settled, which equaled in impor- 
tance any that Roosevelt had taken up. In the course 



384 THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

of debate on the stump, each side made virulent 
accusations against the other, and things were said 
which were not true then and have long since been 
regretted by the sayers. That happens in all political 
contests. 

Roosevelt himself, being the Incarnation, if not 
indeed the cause, of the Progressive Party, had to 
endure an incessant volley of personal attack. They 
charged him with inordinate ambition. We heard 
how Mr. William Barnes, Jr., the would-be savior of 
the country, implied that Roosevelt must be de- 
feated in order to prevent the establishment of mon- 
archy in the United States. Probably Mr. Barnes, In 
his moments of reflection, admitted to himself that 
he did not really mean that, but many campaign 
orators and editors repeated the insinuation and be- 
sought free-born Americans not to elect a candidate 
who would assume the title of King Theodore. Many 
of his critics could account for his leaving the Repub- 
lican Party and heading another, only on the theory 
that he was moved by a desire for revenge. If he 
could not rule he would ruin. The old allegation that 
he must be crazy was of course revived. 

After the election, the Republican Regulars, who 
had stubbornly refused to read the handwriting on 
the wall during the previous four years, heaped new 
abuse upon him. They said that he had betrayed the 



THE TWO CONVENTIONS 385 

Party. They said that he had shown himself an in- 
grate towards Taft, whose achievements in the 
Presidency awoke his envy. And more recently, 
many persons who have loathed the Administration 
of President Wilson, blame Roosevelt for having 
brought down this curse upon the country. 

These various opinions and charges seem to me to 
be mistaken ; and in the foregoing chapters, if I have 
truly divined Theodore Roosevelt's character, every 
reader should see that his action in entering the field 
for the Republican nomination in 1912, and then in 
founding the Progressive Party, was the perfectly 
natural culmination of his career. Some one said that 
he went off at a tangent in 191 2. Some one else has 
said better that this tangent was a straight line lead- 
ing back to 1882, when he sat in the New York 
Assembly. Remember that the love of Justice was 
from boyhood his leading principle. Remember that, 
after he succeeded in having a law passed relieving 
the miserably poor cigar-makers from the hideous 
conditions under which they had to work, a judge 
declared the law unconstitutional, thereby proving 
to Roosevelt that the courts, which should be the 
citadels of Justice, might and did, in this case, care 
more for the financial interests of landowners than 
for the health, life, and soul of human beings. That 
example of injustice was branded on his heart, and 



386 THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

he resolved to combat the judicial league with In- 
humanity, wherever he met it. So Abraham Lincoln, 
when, at the age of twenty-two he first saw a slave 
auction in New Orleans, said, in indignant horror, 
to his companion, John Hanks: "If I ever get a 
chance to hit that thing [meaning slavery] I '11 hit it 
hard." Exactly thirty years later, Abraham Lincoln, 
as President, was hitting that thing — slavery — so 
hard that it perished. Roosevelt's experience as 
Assemblyman, as Civil Service Commissioner, as 
Police Commissioner, as Governor, and as President, 
had confirmed his belief that the decisions of the 
courts often stood between the People and Justice. 
Especially in his war on the Interests was he an- 
gered at finding corporate abuses, and even criminal 
methods, comfortably protected by an upholstery 
of favoring laws. With that tact and willingness to 
compromise on non-essentials in order to gain his 
essential object, which mark him as a statesman, he 
used the Republican Party, naturally the party of 
the plutocrats who controlled the Interests, just as 
long as he could. Then, when the Republican Ma- 
chine rose against him, he quitted it and founded 
the Progressive Party, to be the instrument for 
carrying on and completing the great reforms he had 
at heart. Here was no desertion, no betrayal; here 
was, first of all, common sense; if the road no longer 



THE TWO CONVENTIONS 387 

leads towards your goal, you leave it and take an- 
other. No one believed more sincerely than Roose- 
velt did, in fealty to party. In 1884 he would not 
bolt, because he hoped that the good which the 
Republican principles would accomplish would more 
than offset the harm which the nomination of Blaine 
would inflict. But in 1912, the Republicans cynically 
rejected his cause which he had tried to make the 
Republican cause, and then, as in 1884, he held that 
the cause was more important than the individual, 
and he followed this idea loyally, lead where it 
might. 

In trying thus to state Roosevelt's position fairly, 
I do not mean to imply that I should agree with his 
conclusions in regard to the Recall of the Judicial 
Decisions; and the experiments which have already 
been made with the Referendum and Initiative and 
Direct Primaries are so unsatisfactory that Roose- 
velt himself would probably have recognized that 
the doubts, which many of us felt when he first pro- 
posed those measures, have been justified. But I 
wish to emphasize my admiration for the large con- 
sistency of his career, and my conviction that, with- 
out his crowning action in 19 12, he would have failed 
to be the moral force which he was. If ambition, if 
envy, if a selfish desire to rule, had been the motives 
which guided him, he would have lain low in 1912; 



388 THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

for all his friends and the managers of the Repub- 
lican Party assured him that if he would stand aside 
then, he would be unanimously nominated by the 
Republicans in 1916. But he could not be tempted. 



CHAPTER XXIII 

THE BRAZILIAN ORDEAL 

THEY will be throwing rotten apples at me 
soon," Theodore had said to his sister, on the 
day when New York went frantic in placing him 
among the gods. His treatment, after he championed 
Progressivism, showed him to be clairvoyant. Not 
only did his political opponents belabor him — that 
was quite natural — but his friends, having failed to 
persuade him not to take the fatal leap, let him see 
plainly that, while he still had their affection, they 
had lost their respect for his judgment. He himself 
bore the defeat of 19 12 with the same valiant cheer- 
fulness with which he took every disappointment 
and thwarting. But he was not stolid, much less in- 
different. "It is all very well to talk with the Cru- 
sading spirit," he said after the election, "and of the 
duty to spend and be spent; and I feel it absolutely 
as regards myself; but I hate to see my Crusading 
lieutenants suffer for the cause." He was thinking 
of the eager young men, including some of his kins- 
men, who had gone into the campaign because they 
believed in him. 

His close friends did not follow him, but they still 



390 THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

loved him. And it was a sign of his open-mindedness 
that he would listen to their opinions and even con- 
sult them, although he knew that they entirely re- 
jected his Progressivism. General Luke E. Wright, 
who remained a devoted friend but did not become 
a Progressive, used to explain what the others called 
the Colonel's aberration, as being really a very subtle 
piece of wisdom. Experienced ranchmen, he would 
say, when their herds stampede in a sudden alarm, 
spur their horses through the rushing cattle, fire 
their revolvers into the air, and gradually, by mak- 
ing the herds suppose that men and beasts are all 
together in their wild dash, work their way to the 
front. Then they cleverly make the leaders swing 
round, and after a long stampede the herd comes 
panting back to the place it started from. This, 
General Wright said, is what Roosevelt was doing 
with the multitudes of Radicals who seemed to be 
headed for perdition. 

Just as he had absented himself in Africa for a 
year, after retiring from the Presidency, so Roose- 
velt decided to make one more trip for hunting and 
exploration. As he could not go to the North Pole, 
he said, because that would be poaching on Peary's 
field, he selected South America. He had long 
wished to visit the Southern Continent, and invlta- 



THE BRAZILIAN ORDEAL 391 

tlons to speak at Rio Janeiro and at Buenos Aires 
gave him an excuse for setting out. As before, he 
started with the distinct purpose of collecting animal 
and botanical specimens; this time for the American 
Museum of Natural History in New York, which 
provided two trained naturalists to accompany him. 
His son Kermit, toughened by the previous adven- 
ture, went also. 

Having paid his visits and seen the civilized parts 
of Brazil, Uruguay, and Argentina, he ascended the 
Paraguay River and then struck across the plateau 
which divides its watershed from that of the tribu- 
taries of the Amazon; for he proposed to make his 
way through an unexplored region in Central Brazil 
and reach the outposts of civilization on the Great 
River. Dr. Osborn had dissuaded him from going 
through a tract where the climate was known to be 
most pernicious. The Brazilian Government had 
informed him that, by the route he had chosen, he 
would meet a large river — the Rio da Duvido, the 
River of Doubt — by which he could descend to the 
Amazon. Roosevelt's account of this exploration, 
given in his "The Brazilian Wilderness," belongs 
among the masterpieces of explorers' records. 

There were some twenty persons, including a 
dozen or fifteen native rowers and pack-bearers, in 
his party. They had canoes and dugouts, supplies of 



392 THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

food for about forty days, and a carefully chosen 
outfit. With high hopes they put their craft into the 
water and moved downstream. But on the fourth 
day they found rapids ahead, and from that time on 
they were constantly obliged to land and carry their 
dugouts and stores round a cataract. The peril of 
being swept over the falls was always imminent, and 
as the trail which constituted their portages had to 
be cut through the matted forest, their labors were 
increased. In the first eleven days, they progressed 
only sixty miles. No one knew the distance they 
would have to traverse nor how long the river would 
be broken by falls and cataracts before it came down 
into the plain of the Amazon. Some of their canoes 
were smashed on the rocks; two of the natives were 
drowned. They watched their provisions shrink. Con- 
trary to their expectations, the forest had almost 
no animals. If they could shoot a monkey or a mon- 
ster lizard, they rejoiced at having a little fresh meat. 
Tropical insects — of which the pium seems to 
have been the worst — bit them day and night and 
caused inflammation and even infection. Man-eating 
fish lived in the river, making it dangerous for the 
men when they tried to cool their inflamed bodies 
by a swim. Most of the party had malaria, and could 
be kept going only by large doses of quinine. Roose- 
velt, wTiile in the water, wounded his. leg on a rock, 



THE BRAZILIAN ORDEAL 393 

inflammation set in, and prevented him from walk- 
ing, so that he had to be carried across the portages. 

The physical strength of the party, sapped by 
sickness and fatigue, was visibly waning. Still the 
cataracts continued to impede their progress and 
to add terribly to their toil. The supply of food had 
shrunk so much that the rations were restricted and 
amounted to little more than enough to keep the 
men able to go forward slowly. Then fever attacked 
Roosevelt, and they had to wait for a few days be- 
cause he was too weak to be moved. He besought 
them to leave him and hurry along to safety, because 
every day they delayed consumed their diminishing 
store of food, and they might all die of starvation, 
They refused to leave him, however, and he secretly 
determined to shoot himself unless a change for the 
better in his condition came soon. It came; they 
moved forward. At last, they left the rapids behind 
them and could drift and paddle on the unobstructed 
river. Roosevelt lay in the bottom of a dugout, 
shaded by a bit of canvas put up over his head, and 
too weak from sickness, he told me, even to splash 
water on his face, for he was almost fainting from 
the muggy heat and the tropical sunshine. 

On April 15th, forty-eight days after they, began 
their voyage on the River of Doubt, they saw a peas- 
ant, a rubber-gatherer, the first human being they 



394 THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

had met. Thenceforward they journeyed without 
incident. The River of Doubt flowed into the larger 
river Madeira where they found a steamer which 
took them to Manaos on the Amazon. A regular line 
of steamers connects Manaos with New York, where 
Roosevelt and Kermit and Cherrie, one of the natur- 
alists, landed on May 19, 1914. During the home- 
ward voyage Roosevelt slowly recovered his strength, 
but he had never again the iron physique with which 
he had embarked the year before. His friends had 
urged him not to go, warning him that a man of fifty- 
four wa^ already too old to waste his reserve force 
on unnecessary enterprises. But his love of adven- 
ture, his passion for testing his endurance and pluck 
by facing the grimmest dangers, and his wish to keep 
out of American political turmoil for a time, pre- 
vailed against wiser counsel. The Brazilian Wilder- 
ness stole away ten years of his life. 

I do not know whether later, when he found him- 
self checked by recurrent illness, he regretted having 
chosen to encounter that ordeal in Brazil. He was a 
man who wasted no time over regrets. The past for 
him was done. The material out of which he wove 
his life was the present or the future. Days gone 
were as water that has flowed under the mill. Acting 
always from what he regarded as the best motives 
of the present, he faced with equal heart whatever 



THE BRAZILIAN ORDEAL 395 

result they brought. So when he found on his return 
home that some geographers and South American 
explorers laughed at his story of the River of Doubt, 
he laughed, too, at their incredulity, and presently 
the Brazilian Government, having established the 
truth of his exploration and named the river after 
him, Rio Teodoro, his laughter prevailed. He took 
real satisfaction in having placed on the map of Cen- 
tral Brazil a river six hundred miles long. 

New York made no festival for him on this second 
home-coming. The city and the country welcomed 
him, but not effusively. The American people, how- 
ever, felt a void without Roosevelt. Whether they 
always agreed with him or not, they found him per- 
petually interesting, and during the ten or eleven 
weeks when he went into the Brazilian silence and 
they did not know whether he was alive or dead, 
they learned how much his presence and his ready 
speech had meant to them. And so they rejoiced to 
know that he was safe and at home again at Saga- 
more Hill. 

Roosevelt insisted, imprudently, on accompany- 
ing his son Kermit to Madrid, where he was to marry 
the daughter of the American Minister. He made 
the trip to Spain and back, as quickly as possible, 
and then he turned to politics. That year, Congress- 
men and several Governors were to be elected, and 



396 THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

Roosevelt allowed himself to be drawn into the cam- 
paign. As I have said, he was like the consummate 
actor who, in spite of his protestations, can never 
bid farewell to the stage. And now a peculiar obliga- 
tion moved him. He must help the friends who had 
followed him eagerly into the conflict of 191 2, and, 
in helping them, he must save the Progressive princi- 
ples and drive them home with still greater cogency. 
He delivered a remarkable address at Pittsburgh; 
he toured New York State in an automobile; he 
spoke to multitudes in Pennsylvania from the back 
platform of a special train; he visited Louisiana and 
several other States. But the November elections dis- 
appointed him. The Progressive Party, if not dead, 
had ceased to be a real power in politics; but Pro- 
gressivism, as an influence and an ideal, was surviv- 
ing under other forms. 

Probably the chief cause for this wane was the 
putting into operation, by President Wilson and the 
triumphant Democrats, of many of the Progres- 
sive suggestions which the Democratic Platform had 
also contained. The psychological effect of success in 
politics is always important and this accounted for 
the cooling of the zeal of a certain number of enthu- 
siasts who had vociferously supported Roosevelt in 
1 91 2. The falling-off in the vote measured further 
the potency of Roosevelt's personal magnetism; 



THE BRAZILIAN ORDEAL 397 

thousands voted for him who would not vote for 
other candidates professing his principles. Finally, 
other issues — the imbroglio with Mexico, for in- 
stance — were looming up, and exciting a different 
interest among the American people. 

Before we discuss the greatest issue of all, in which 
Theodore Roosevelt's career as a patriot culminated, 
we must recall two or three events which absorbed 
him at the time and furnished evidence of vital 
import to those who would appraise his character 
fairly. 

During the campaign of 191 2, his enemies resorted 
to all sorts of slanders, calumnies, lies, ignoble al- 
ways, and often indecent, to blacken him. On Oc- 
tober 1 2th, the Iron Ore, a trade paper edited by 
George A. Newett at Ishpeming, Michigan, pub- 
ished this accusation: " Roosevelt lies and curses in a 
most disgusting way; he gets drunk too, and that not 
infrequently, and all of his intimates know about it." 
When he was President, Roosevelt had appointed 
Newett as postmaster, but Newett stayed by the 
Republican Party, and did not scruple to serve it, 
as he supposed, in this way. The charge of drunken- 
ness spread so far and, as usual, so many persons said 
that where there is much smoke there must be some 
fire, that Roosevelt determined to crush that lie once 
for all. He would not have it stand unchallenged, to 



398 THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

shame his children after he was dead, or to furnish 
food for the maggots which feed on the reputations 
of great men. So he brought suit against Newett. 
His counsel, James H. Pound, assembled nearly two- 
score witnesses, who had known Roosevelt since he 
left College, men who had visited him, had hunted 
with him, had served with him in the Spanish War, 
had been his Cabinet Ministers, journalists who had 
followed him on his campaigning tours, detectives, 
and his personal body-servant; General Leonard 
Wood, and Jacob Riis, and Dr. Alexander Lambert, 
who had been his family physician for a quarter of 
a century. This cloud of witnesses all testified unan- 
imously that they had never seen him drink anything 
stronger than wine, except as a medicine; that he 
took very little wine, and that they had never seen 
him drunk. They also declared that he was not a 
curser or blasphemer. 

After listening to this mass of evidence for a week, 
Newett begged to withdraw his charge and to apolo- 
gize, and he confessed that he had nothing but hear- 
say on which to base his slanders. Then Roosevelt 
addressed the court and asked it not to impose 
damages upon the defendant, as he had not prose- 
cuted the libeler with the intention of getting satis- 
faction in money. He wrote one of his sisters from 
Marquette, where the trial was held: "I deemed it 



THE BRAZILIAN ORDEAL 399 

best not to demand money damages; the man is a 
country editor, and while I thoroly^ depise him, I 
do not care to seem to persecute him." (May 31, 

1913-) 

Roosevelt had to undergo one other trial, this 
time as defendant. The managers of the Republican 
Party and the Interests behind them, not content 
with blocking his way to the nomination in 1912, 
wished utterly to destroy him as a political factor; 
for they still dreaded that, as a Progressive, he might 
have a triumphant resurrection and recapture the 
confidence of the American people. To accomplish 
their purpose they wished to discredit him as a re- 
form politician, and as a leader in civic and social 
welfare. 

Roosevelt himself gave the occasion for their on- 
slaught upon him. In supporting Harvey D. Hinman, 
the Progressive candidate for the Governor of New 
York in 1914, he declared that William Barnes, Jr., 
who managed the Republican Machine politics in 
that State, had a bi-partisan alliance with the Dem- 
ocratic Machine in the interest of crooked politics 
and crooked business. Mr. Barnes, in whose ears the 
word " Boss " sounded obnoxious as applied to him- 
self, brought suit for libel, and it came to trial at 

^ I copy "thoroly,"as he wrote it, as a reminder that Roosevelt 
practiced the spelling reform which he advocated. 



400 THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

Syracuse on April 19, 1915. Mr. Barnes's counsel, 
Mr. Ivins, peered into every item of Mr. Roose- 
velt's political career with a microscope. Mr. Barnes 
had, of course, all the facts, all the traditions that 
his long experience at Albany could give him. And 
as he dated back to Boss Piatt's time, he must have 
heard, at first hand from the Senator, his relations 
with Roosevelt as Governor. But the most search- 
ing examination by Mr. Barnes brought him no 
evidence, and cross-examination, pursued for many 
days, brought him no more. When it became Roose- 
velt's turn to reply, he showed how the Albany Eve- 
ning Journal, Mr. Barnes's organ, had profited by 
illegal political advertising. He proved the existence 
of the bi-partisan alliance with the Democratic Ma- 
chine, and showed its effects on legislation and elec- 
tions. After deliberating two days, the jury brought 
in a verdict in favor of Roosevelt. 

The trial, which had lasted two months, and cost 
Roosevelt $52,000 (so expensive is it for an honest 
man to defend his honesty against hostile politi- 
cians!) decided two things: first, that Mr. Barnes 
was a Boss, and had used crooked methods; and 
next, that Theodore Roosevelt, under the most in- 
tense scrutiny which his enemies could employ, 
was freed from any suspicion of dishonest political 
methods or acts. As William M. Ivins, attorney for 



THE BRAZILIAN ORDEAL 401 

Mr. Barnes, left the New York Constitutional Con- 
vention to try the case at Syracuse, he said with un- 
concealed and alluring self-satisfaction to Mr. Root: 
"I am going to nail Roosevelt's hide to the barn 
door." Mr. Root replied: "Be sure it is Roosevelt's 
and not some other hide that is nailed there." 



T 



CHAPTER XXIV 

PROMETHEUS BOUND 

HE event which put Roosevelt's patriotism 
to the final test, and, as it proved, evoked all 
his great qualities in a last display, was the out- 
break of the Atrocious World War in August, 1914. 
By the most brutal assault in modern times, Ger- 
many, and her lackey ally, Austria, without notice, 
overran Belgium and Northeastern France, and 
devastated Serbia. The other countries, especially 
the United States, were too startled at first to un- 
derstand either the magnitude or the possible im- 
plications of this war. On August i8th, President 
Wilson issued the first of his many variegated mes- 
sages, in which he gave this warning: "We must be 
impartial in thought as well as in action, must put 
a curb upon our sentiments as well as upon every 
transaction that might be construed as a preference 
of one party to the struggle before another." He 
added that his first thought was of America. 

Any one who analyzed his message carefully must 
have wondered how it was possible, in the greatest 
moral issue which had ever been thrust before the 



PROMETHEUS BOUND 403 

world's judgment, to remain impartial "even in 
thought" between good and evil. Perhaps it was 
right, though hardly necessary, to impress upon 
Americans that they must look after their own in- 
terests first. Would it not have been more seemly, 
however, especially for President Wilson, who on 
the previous Fourth of July had uttered his sancti- 
monious tribute to the superiority in virtue of the 
United States to all other nations, to urge his coun- 
trymen to put some of this virtue into practice at 
that crisis? 

But the masses did not reason. They used his ad- 
monition to remain neutral "even in thought" to 
justify them in not having any great anxiety as to 
who was right and who wrong; and they interpreted 
his concern for "America first" as authorizing them 
to go about their affairs and profit as much as they 
could in the warlike conditions. Some of us, indeed, 
took an opposite view. We saw that the conflict, if 
fought to a finish, would decide whether Democracy 
or Despotism should rule the earth. We felt that the 
United States, the vastest, strongest, and most popu- 
lous Republic in the world, pledged to uphold Democ- 
racy, should throw itself at once on the side of the 
European nations which were struggling, against 
great odds, to save Democracy from the most atro- 
cious of despots. Inevitably, we were regarded as 



404 THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

incorrigible idealists whose suggestions ran counter 
to etiquette and were, after all, crazy. 

For several years, Roosevelt had been a contrib- 
uting editor of the Outlook, and although his first 
instinct, when the Germans ravished Belgium, was 
to protest and then, if necessary, to follow up our 
protest by a show of force, he wrote in the Outlook 
an approval of our taking immediately a neutral 
attitude. Still, he did not let this preclude stern ac- 
tion later. "Neutrality," he said, "may be of prime 
necessity to maintain peace . . . but we pay the pen- 
alty of this action on behalf of peace for ourselves, 
and possibly for others in the future, by forfeiting 
our right to do anything on behalf of peace for the 
Belgians at present." Three years afterwards these 
sentences of his were unearthed by his enemies and 
flung against him; but his dominant purpose, from 
the start, was too well known for any one to accuse 
him of inconsistency. He assumed, when President 
Wilson issued his impartial "even in thought" mes- 
sage, that the President must have some secret dip- 
lomatic information which would vindicate it. 

As the months went on, however, it became clear 
to him that Mr. Wilson was pursuing towards the 
European War the same policy of contradictions, 
— of brief paroxysms of boldness, followed by long 
periods of lassitude, which had marked his conduct 



PROMETHEUS BOUND 405 

of our relations towards the Mexican bandits. He 
saw only too well, also, into what ignoble depths 
this policy led us. Magnificent France, throttled 
Belgium, England willing but not yet ready, dev- 
astated Serbia, looked to us for sympathy and help, 
and all the sympathy they got came from private 
persons in America, and of help there was none. 
Meanwhile, the Germans undermined and gan- 
grened the American people. Every ship brought 
over their slyest and most unscrupulous propagan- 
dists, who cooperated with the despicable German 
professors and other agents already planted here, 
and opened the sewers of their doctrines. Their spies 
began to go up and down the land, without check. 
Count Bernstorff, the German Ambassador, as- 
sumed to play with the Administration at Washing- 
ton as a cat might play with half a score of mice, 
feeling sure that he could devour them when he chose. 
A European gentleman, who came from a neutral 
country, and called on Bernstorff in April, I9I5» told 
me that when he asked the Ambassador how he got 
on with the United States, he replied: ''Very well, 
indeed; we pay no attention to the Government, but 
go ahead and do what we please." Within a fort- 
night the sinking of the Lusitania showed that 
Bernstorff had not boasted idly. 

Roosevelt understood the harm which the Ger- 



4o6 THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

man conspiracy was doing among our people, not 
only by polluting their ideals, but actually strength- 
ening the coils which the propagandists had been 
winding, to strangle at the favorable moment Ameri- 
can independence itself. We discovered then that the 
process of Germanization had been going on secretly 
during twenty years. Since England was the chief 
enemy in the way of German world domination, the 
German-Americans laid themselves out to render the 
English odious here. And they worked to such good 
purpose that the legal officers of the Administration 
admonished the American people that the English, 
in holding up merchant vessels laden with cargoes 
for Germany, committed breaches against interna- 
tional law which were quite as heinous as the sinking 
by German submarines of ships laden with American 
non-combatants. They magnified the loss of a cargo 
of perishable food and set it against the ferocious 
destruction of neutral human beings. Senator Lodge, 
however, expressed the clear thought and right 
feeling of Americans when he said that we were more 
moved by the thought of the corpse of an innocent 
victim of the Hun submarines than by that of a 
bale of cotton. 

These enormities, these sins of omission and com- 
mission, of which Roosevelt declared our Govern- 
ment guilty, amazed and exasperated him, and from 



PROMETHEUS BOUND 407 

the beginning of 191 5 onward, he set himself three 
tasks. He wished to expose and circumvent German 
machinations over here. Next, he deemed it a press- 
ing duty to rouse our country to the recognition 
that we must prepare at once for war. He saw, as 
every other sensible person saw, that as the con- 
flict grew more terrible in Europe and spread into 
Asia and Africa, we should be drawn into it, and 
that therefore we must make ready. He seconded 
the plan of General Leonard Wood to organize a 
camp for volunteers at Plattsburg and other places; 
and what that plan accomplished in fitting Amer- 
ican soldiers to meet and vanquish the Kaiser's 
best troops, has since been proved. President Wilson, 
however, would not officially countenance any prep- 
aration which, so far as the public was allowed to 
know his reasons, might be taken by the Germans 
as an unfriendly act. Finally, Roosevelt labored 
unceasingly to revive and make militant the ideals 
of true Americanism. 

That the Germans accurately gauged that Presi- 
dent Wilson would not sanction any downright vig- 
orous action against them, was sufficiently proved 
on May 7, 1915, when German submarines torpe- 
doed and sank, at two o'clock in the afternoon, the 
British passenger steamship Lusitania, eastward 
bound, a few miles south of the Point of Kinsale on 



408 THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

the Irish coast. With her went down nearly thirteen 
hundred persons, all of them non-belligerents and 
more than one hundred of them American men, 
women, and children. This atrocious crime the Ger- 
mans committed out of their stupid miscalculation 
of the motives which govern non-German peoples. 
They thought that the British and Americans would 
be so terrorized that they would no longer dare to 
cross the ocean. The effect was, of course, just the 
opposite. A cry of horror swept over the civilized 
world, and swiftly upon it came a great demand for 
punishment and retribution. 

Then was the moment for President Wilson to 
break off diplomatic relations with Germany. The 
very day after the waters of the British Channel had 
closed over the innocent victims. President Wilson 
made an address in which he announced that "a 
nation may be too proud to fight." The country 
gasped for breath when it read those words, which 
seemed to be the official statement of the President 
of the United States that foreign nations might out- 
rage, insult, and degrade this nation with impunity, 
because, as the rabbit retires into its hole, so we 
would burrow deep into our pride and show neither 
resentment nor sense of honor. As soon as possible, 
word came from the White House that, as the Presi- 
dent's speech had been written before the sinking 



PROMETHEUS BOUND 409 

of the Lusitania, his remarks had no bearing on that 
atrocity. Pride is a wonderful cloak for cowards, 
but it never saves them. Perhaps the most amazing 
piece of impudence in Germany's long list was the 
formal visit described by the newspapers which the 
German Ambassador, Bernstorff , paid to Mr. Bryan, 
the Secretary of State, to present to our Govern- 
ment the formal condolence of Germany and him- 
self at this painful happening. Bernstorff, we know 
now, planned the sinking and gave the German 
Government notice by wireless just where the sub- 
marines could best destroy the Lusitania, on that 
Friday afternoon. 

Ten days later, Mr. Wilson sent a formal protest 
to Germany in which he recalled "the humane and 
enlightened attitude hitherto assumed by the Im- 
perial German Government in matters of interna- 
tional right, and particularly in regard to the free- 
dom of the seas " ; and he professed to have "learned 
to recognize the German views and the German in- 
fluence in the field of international obligation as 
always engaged upon the side of justice and hu- 
manity." If Mr. Bryan had written this, no one 
would have been astonished, because Mr. Bryan 
made no pretense of knowing even the rudimentary 
facts of history; but that President Wilson, by pro- 
fession a historian, should laud, as being always 



410 THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

engaged in justice and humanity, the nation which, 
under Frederick the Great, had stolen Silesia and 
dismembered Poland, and which, in his own lifetime, 
had garroted Denmark, had forced a wicked war on 
Austria, had trapped France by lies into another 
war and robbed her of Alsace-Lorraine, and had only 
recently wiped its hands, dripping with blood drawn 
from the Chinese, was amazing! 

Small wonder if after that, the German hyphen- 
ates lifted up their heads arrogantly in this country, 
or that the Kaiser in Germany believed that the 
United States was a mere jelly-fish nation which 
would tolerate any enormity he might concoct. This 
was the actual comfort President Wilson's message 
gave Germany. The negative result was felt among 
the Allied nations which, struggling against the Ger- 
man Monster like Laocoon in the coils of the Python, 
took Mr. Wilson's praise of Germany's imaginary 
love of justice and humanity as a death-warrant for 
themselves. They could not believe that he who wrote 
such words, or the American people who swallowed 
them, could ever be roused to give succor to the 
Allies in their desperation. 

Three years later I asked Roosevelt what he would 
have done, if he had been President in May, 191 5. 
He said, in substance, that, as soon as he had read 



PROMETHEUS BOUND 411 

in the New York newspaper ^ the advertisement 
which Bernstorff had inserted warning all Ameri- 
can citizens from taking passage on the Lusitania, 
he would have sent for Bernstorff and asked him 
whether the advertisement was officially acknowl- 
edged by him. Even Bernstorff, arch-liar that he 
was, could not have denied it. "I should then have 
sent to the Department of State to prepare his 
passports; I should have handed them to him and 
said, 'You will sail on the Lusitania yourself next 
Friday; an American guard will see you on board, 
and prevent your coming ashore.' The breaking- 
off of diplomatic relations with Germany," Roose- 
velt added, "would probably have meant war, and 
we were horribly unprepared. But better war, than 
submission to a humiliation which no President of 
this country has ever before allowed; better war a 
thousand times, than to let the Germans go on really 
making war upon us at sea, and honeycombing the 
American people with plots on land, while our Gov- 
ernment shamelessly lavishes praise on the crimi- 
nal for his justice and humanity and virtually begs 
his pardon." 

Thus believed Roosevelt in the Lusitania crisis, 
and many others of us agreed with him. The stopping 

^ The advertisement was printed in the New York Times ofApril • '''^^ r 

23. 1915- 



412 THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

of German intrigues here, the breaking-off of diplo- 
matic relations, would have been of inestimable 
benefit to this country. It would have caused every 
American to rally to the country's defense. It would 
have forced the reluctant Administration to prepare 
a navy and an army. It would have sifted the patri- 
otic sheep from the sneaking and spying goats. It 
would have brought immense comfort to the Allies 
and corresponding despondency to the Huns. For 
Germany plunged into the war believing that Eng- 
land would remain neutral. When England came in, 
to redeem her word of honor, Germany's frantic pur- 
pose was to have us keep neutral and supply her 
with food and munitions. Had she known that there 
was any possibility of our actively joining the Allies, 
she would have hastened to make peace. Our first 
troops could have reached France in the early spring 
of 1916. They would not have been, of course, shock 
troops, but their presence in France would have 
been an assurance to the Allies that we were com- 
ing with all our force, and the Germans would soon 
have understood that this meant their doom. By 
the summer of 191 6, the war would have been 
over. 

Think what this implies! Two years and a half of 
fighting would never have taken place. At least three 
million lives among the Allied armies would have 



PROMETHEUS BOUND 413 

been saved. Russia would have been spared revolu- 
tion, chaos, Bolshevism. Some, at least, of the myri- 
ads of massacred Armenians would not have been 
slain. Thousands of square miles of devastated terri- 
tory would not have been spoiled. A hundred billions 
of dollars for equipping and carrying on the war 
would never have been spent. All this is not an idle 
dream; it is the calm statement of what would prob- 
ably have happened if President Wilson, after the 
Lusitania outrage, had dared to break w^ith Ger- 
many. History will hold him accountable for those 
millions of lives sacrificed, for the unspeakable suffer- 
ing which the people of the ravaged regions had to 
endure, for the dissolution of Russia, which threat- 
ened to throw down the bases of our civilization, 
and for the waste of incalculable treasure. 

President Wilson's apologists assert that the coun- 
try was not ready for him to take any resolute atti- 
tude towards Germany in May, 1915. They argue 
that if he had attempted to do so there would have 
been great internal dissension, perhaps even civil 
war, and especially that the German sections would 
have opposed preparations for war so stubbornly as 
to have made them impossible. This is pure assump- 
tion. The truth is that whenever or wherever an 
appeal was made to American patriotism, it met 
with an immediate response. The sinking of the 



414 THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

Lusitania created such a storm of horror and indig- 
nation that if the President had hfted a finger, the 
manhood of America, and the womanhood, too, 
would have risen to back him up. But instead of 
Hfting a finger, he wrote that message to Germany, 
praising the Germans for their traditional respect 
for justice and humanity. And a long time had yet 
to pass before he made the least sign of encourage- 
ment to those Americans who would uphold the 
honor of the United States and would have this, the 
greatest of Republics, take its due part in defending 
Democracy against the Huns' attempt to wipe 
Democracy ofif the earth forever. 

Having missed his opportunity then, Mr. Wilson 
could of course plead that the country was less and 
less inclined to go to war, because he furnished the 
pro-German plotters the very respite they had needed 
for carrying on their work. By unavowed ways they 
secured a strong support among the members of the 
National House of Representatives and the Senate. 
They disguised themselves as pacifists, and they 
found it easy to wheedle the "lunatic fringe" of 
native pacifists into working for the domination of 
William of Hohenzollern over the United States, 
and for the establishing of his world dominion. The 
Kaiser's propagandists spread evil arguments to jus- 
tify all the Kaiser's crimes, and they found willing 



PROMETHEUS BOUND 415 

disciples even among the members of the Adminis- 
tration to repeat and uphold these arguments. 

They told us, for instance, that their massacre 
served the victims of the Lusitania right for taking 
passage on a British steamship. They even wished 
to pass a law forbidding Americans from traveling 
on the ocean at all, because, by doing so, they might 
be blown up by the Germans, and that would in- 
volve this country in diplomatic difhculties with 
Germany. Next, the Germans protested against our 
selling munitions of war to the Allies. Neither cus- 
tom nor international law forbade doing this, and 
the protest stood out in stark impudence when it 
came from Germany, the country which, for fifty 
years and more, had sold munitions to every one 
who asked and had not hesitated to sell impartially 
to both antagonists in the Russo-Japanese War. By 
playing on the sentimentality of this same "lunatic 
fringe," the German intriguers almost succeeded in 
driving through a bill to stop this trafific. They knew 
the true Prussian way of whimpering when bullying 
did not avail them. And so they not only whimpered 
about our sending shells over to kill the German 
soldiers, but they whimpered also over the dire ef- 
fects which the Allied blockade produced upon the 
non-combatant population of Germany. 

These things went on, not only a whole year, but 



4i6 THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

far into the second after the sinking of the Lusitania. 
Roosevelt never desisted from charging that the per- 
son ultimately responsible for them was President 
Wilson, and he believed that the President's appar- 
ent self-satisfaction would avail him little when he 
stands at the bar of History. 

It may be that an entire people may lose for a 
time its sense of logic. We have just had the most 
awful proof that, through a long-continued and de- 
liberate education for that purpose, the German 
people lost its moral sense and set up diabolical 
standards in place of those common to all civilized 
races. We know that religious hysteria has at differ- 
ent times, like the influenza, swept over a nation, or 
that a society has lost its taste for generations to- 
gether in art, and in poetry. We remember that the 
Witchcraft Delusion obsessed our ancestors. It is 
not impossible, therefore, that between 19 14 and 
19 1 8 the American people passed through a stage 
in which it threw logic to the winds. This would 
account at least for its infatuation for President 
Wilson, in spite of his undisguised inconsistencies 
and appalling blunders. A people who thought logic- 
ally and kept certain principles steadily before it, 
could hardly otherwise have tolerated Mr. Wilson's 
" too-proud-to-fight " speech, and his message to 
Germany after the sinking of the Lusitania, or his 



PROMETHEUS BOUND 417 

subsequent endeavor to make the Americans think 
that there was no choice between the causes for 
which the AlHes and the Teutons were fighting. Was 
it not he who said that Europe was war-mad, and 
that America had better mind her own business, 
and look the other way? Did he not declare that we 
were forced into war, and then that we were not? 
That a President of the United States should assert 
or even insinuate these things during the great War 
for Humanity — and by Humanity I mean every 
trait, every advance which has lifted men above the 
level of the beast, where they originated, to the level 
of the human with its potential ascent to heights 
undreamed of — is amazing now: what will it be a 
generation hence? 

Roosevelt watched impatiently while these strange 
phases passed before him. He listened angrily at the 
contradictory utterances. He felt the ignominy of 
our country's being at such a depth. He knew Ger- 
many too well to suppose that she could be deterred 
by President Wilson's messages. He saw something 
comic in shaking a long fore-finger and saying, "Tut, 
tut! I shall consider being very harsh, if you commit 
these outrages three more times." To shake your 
fist at all, and then to shake your finger, seemed to 
Roosevelt almost imbecile. Cut off from serving the 
cause of American patriotism in any public capacity, 



4i8 THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

Roosevelt struggled to take his part by writing. 
Every month in the Outlook, and subsequently in 
the Metropolitan Magazine, he gave vent to his pent- 
up indignation. The very titles of some of his papers 
reveal his animus: "Fear God and Take Your Own 
Part"; "A Sword for Defense"; "America First: 
A Phrase or a Fact?"; "Uncle Sam's Only Friend is 
Uncle Sam"; "Dual Nationality"; "Preparedness." 
In each of these he poured forth with unflagging 
vehemence the fundamental verities on which our 
American society should rest. He showed that it 
was not a mere competition in letter-writing be- 
tween the honey-worded Mr. Wilson and the sophis- 
ticated Bernstorff or the Caliban-sly Bethmann- 
Hollweg, but that God was in the crisis, and that no 
adroitness of phrase or trick of diplomacy could get 
rid of Him. He showed that there could not be two 
kinds of Americans: one genuine, which believed 
wholly and singly in the United States, and the 
other cunning and mongrel, which swore allegiance 
to the United States — lip service — and kept its 
allegiance to Germany — heart service. He lost no 
opportunity to make his illustrations clear. On re- 
signing as Secretary of State after the sinking of the 
Lusitania, because President Wilson insisted on 
mildly calling Germany's attention to that crime, 
Mr. Bryan addressed a large audience of Germans. 



PROMETHEUS BOUND 419 

Then Roosevelt held him up to the gaze of the 
American people as a man who had no true Ameri- 
canism. 

Lest I should be suspected of misinterpreting or 
exaggerating Roosevelt's opinion of President Wil- 
son, during the first two years of the war, I quote 
two or three passages, taken at random, which will 
prove, I hope, that I have summarized him truly. 

He says, for instance: 

Professional pacifists of the type of Messrs. Bryan, Jordan, 
and Ford, who in the name of peace preach doctrines that 
would entail not merely utter infamy, but utter disaster to 
their own country, never in practice venture to denounce 
concrete wrong by dangerous wrongdoers. . . . 

These professional pacifists, through President Wilson, 
have forced the country into a path of shame and dishonor 
during the past eighteen months. Thanks to President Wilson, 
the most powerful of Democratic nations has refused to rec- 
ognize the binding moral force of international public law. 
Our country has shirked its clear duty. One outspoken and 
straightforward declaration by this government against the 
dreadful iniquities perpetrated in Belgium, Armenia, and 
Servia would have been worth to humanity a thousand times 
as much as all that the professional pacifists have done in 
the past fifty years. . . . Fine phrases become sickening when 
they represent nothing whatever but adroitness in phrase- 
making, with no intention of putting deeds behind the 
phrases. 

After the American messages in regard to the 
sinking of the Lusita7iia had brought no apology, 
much less any suggestion of redress, Roosevelt said: 



420 THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

Apparently President Wilson has believed that the Ameri- 
can people would permanently forget their dead and would 
slur over the dishonor and disgrace to the United States by 
that basest of all the base pleas of cowardly souls which finds 
expression in the statement: " Oh, well, anyhow the President 
kept us out of war!" The people who make this plea assert 
with quavering voices that they "are behind the President." 
So they are; well behind him. The farther away from the posi- 
tion of duty and honor and hazard he has backed, the farther 
' behind him these gentry have stood — or run. 

Finally, Roosevelt stated with deadly clearness 
the position into which Wilson's vacillating policy 
had driven us: 

The United States has not a friend in the world. Its con- 
duct, under the leadership of its official representatives, for 
the last five years and, above all, for the last three years, has 
deprived it of the respect and has secured for it the contempt 
of every one of the great civilized nations of mankind. Peace 
treaties and windy Fourth-of-July eloquence and the base 
materialism which seeks profit as an incident to the abandon- 
ment of duty will not help us now. For five years our rulers 
at Washington have believed that all this people cared for 
was easy money, absence of risk and effort, and sounding 
platitudes which were not reduced to action. We have so 
acted as to convince other nations that in very truth we are 
too proud to fight; and the man who is too proud to fight is in 
practice always treated as just proud enough to be kicked. 
We have held our peace when our women and children were 
slain. We have turned away our eyes from the sight of our 
brother's woe. 

" He kept us out of war," was a paradoxical battle- 
cry for one who in a very short time thereafter wished 



PROMETHEUS BOUND 421 

to pose as the winner of the greatest war In history. 
But the battle-cry, it turned out, was used chiefly 
for poHtical purposes. The year 1916 was a Presiden- 
tial year and his opponents suspected that every- 
thing President Wilson had done at home or abroad 
had been planned by him with a view to the effect 
which it might have on his reelection. Politicians of 
all parties saw that the war was the vital question 
to be decided by the political campaign. For the 
Democrats, Wilson was, of course, the onl}^ candi- 
date; but the Republicans and the Progressives had 
their own schism to settle. First of all, they must 
attempt to reunite and to present a candidate whom 
both factions would support; if they did not, the 
catastrophe of 191 2 would be repeated, and Wilson 
would again easily win against two warring Pro- 
gressive and Republican candidates. The elections 
In 1914 showed that the Progressive Party was dis- 
integrating. Should its leaders strive now to revive 
its strength or should they bow to the inevitable, 
combine with the Republicans on a satisfactory can- 
didate, and urge all the Progressives as a patriotic 
duty to support him? 

All depended on Roosevelt's decision. After re- 
flection, he consented to run for nomination by the 
Progressives. It soon became plain, however, that 
the Republicans would not take him back. The 



422 THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

Machine did not want him on any terms: many of 
the Republicans blinding themselves to the fact that, 
as the number of votes cast in 191 2 proved, Taft 
and not he had split the Republican Party, held 
Roosevelt responsible for the defeat in that year. 
One heard also of some Republicans who, for lack 
of a better reason, opposed Roosevelt because, they 
said, that Roosevelt having put Taft into the Presi- 
dency, ought not to have "gone back" on him. Yet 
these same persons, if they had taken a partner into 
their firm to carry on a certain policy, and had found 
him pursuing a different one, would hardly have 
argued that they were in loyalty bound to continue 
to support this partner as long as he chose. The con- 
sideration which weighed with a much larger num- 
ber, however, was that Roosevelt had so antagonized 
the German vote and the Pacifist vote and all the 
other anti-American votes, that he might not be a 
winning candidate. Accordingly, the Republicans 
sought for somebody who would please everybody, 
and yet would have enough personal strength to be a 
leader. They pitched on Charles E. Hughes, former 
Governor of New York State, and then a Justice of 
the Supreme Court of the United States. The un- 
wisdom of going to the Supreme Bench for a stand- 
ard-bearer was immediately apparent; because all 
the proprieties prevented Justice Hughes from ex- 



PROMETHEUS BOUND 423 

pressing any opinion on political subjects until he 
resigned from the Court. Hence, it followed that no 
great enthusiasm could be aroused over his candi- 
dacy for nomination since nobody knew what his 
policy would be. 

The Progressives held their Convention in Chicago 
on June 5th, the same day that the Republicans met 
there. Some of the original, Simon- Pure Progressives 
disapproved of this collusion, declaring that it repre- 
sented a ''deal," and that the Progressive Party, 
which had come into existence as a rebuke of Ma- 
chine politics, ought never to soil itself by enter- 
ing into a "deal." Nevertheless, the will of the 
more worldly-minded prevailed, and they probably 
thought that there would be a better chance to 
have the Republicans nominate Roosevelt if he were 
already the nominee of the Progressives. But they 
were disappointed. They nominated Roosevelt and 
the Republicans Justice Hughes. Suspense followed 
as to whether Roosevelt, by accepting, would oblige 
the Progressives to organize another campaign. He 
sent only a conditional acceptance to the Progres- 
sive Committee and, a few days later, he announced 
publicly that he would support Justice Hughes, be- 
cause he regarded the defeat of Wilson as the most 
vital object before the American people. 

I find among my correspondence from him a reply 



424 THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

to a letter of mine in which I had quite needlessly 
urged this action upon him. I quote this passage 
because it epitomizes what might be expanded over 
many pages. The letter is dated June i6, 1916: 

I agree entirely with you. I shall do all I can for Mr. Hughes. 
But don't forget that Mr. Hughes alone can make it possible 
for me to be efficient in his behalf. If he merely speaks like 
Mr. Wilson, only a little more weakly, he will rob my support 
of its effectiveness. Speeches such as those of mine, to which 
you kindly allude, have their merit only if delivered for a 
man who is himself speaking uncompromisingly and without 
equivocation. I have just sent word to Hughes through one 
of our big New York financiers to make a smashing attack on 
Wilson for his actions, and to do it immediately, in connection 
with this Democratic Nominating Convention. Wilson was 
afraid of me. He never dared answer me; but if Hughes lets 
him, he will proceed to take the offensive against Hughes. 
I shall do everything I can for him, but don't forget that the 
efficiency of what I do must largely depend upon Hughes. 

Roosevelt was as good as his word, and made four 
or five powerful speeches in behalf of Mr. Hughes, 
speeches which gave a sharper edge to the Republi- 
cans' fight. But their campaign was obviously mis- 
managed. They put their candidate to the torture 
of making two transcontinental journeys, in which 
he had to speak incessantly, and they warned him 
against uttering any downright criticism of the anti- 
American throng, whose numbers being unknown 
were feared. President Wilson, on the other hand, 
unexpectedly flared up in a retort which doubtless 



PROMETHEUS BOUND 425 

won votes for him. Jeremiah O'Leary, an Irish agi- 
tator in relations with the German propagandists, 
tried to catch Mr. Wilson in a pro-British snare. 
The President replied: " I would feel deeply mortified 
to have you or anybody like you vote for me. Since 
you have access to so many disloyal Americans, and 
I have not, I will ask you to convey this message to 
them." 

The result of the election, which took place on 
November 5th, hung in suspense for many days. 
Then it appeared that Wilson, by capturing thirteen 
California votes, had won by 277 electoral votes 
to 254 for Hughes. Of the popular vote, Wilson got 
9,128,000 and Hughes, 8,536,000. So the slogan, 
"He kept us out of war," accomplished its purpose. 



CHAPTER XXV 

PROMETHEUS UNBOUND 

DURING the winter of 1 916-17, Roosevelt 
never relaxed his criticism of President Wil- 
son's dilatory and evasive policy, or his efforts to 
arouse the American people to a sense of their duty 
to civilization. By this time the President himself 
felt that it was safe for him to speak up in behalf of 
Americanism. The year before, Roosevelt having 
been assured that it would be dangerous to make 
American and pro- Ally speeches in the Middle West, 
went straight to the so-called German cities, and 
was most enthusiastically received where it had been 
predicted he would be hooted and even mobbed. 
President Wilson ventured to follow him some time 
later, and suffered no harm. By the summer of 191 6 
he became almost reckless, as it seemed, in his utter- 
ances. He said to the graduating cadets at West 
Point: "My conception of America is a conception 
of infinite dignity, along with quiet, unquestionable 
power. I ask you, gentlemen, to join with me in that 
conception, and let us all in our several spheres be 
soldiers together to realize it." ^ Once he declared 

1 July 14, 1916. 



PROMETHEUS UNBOUND 427 

that he too came of fighting blood. Meanwhile, how- 
ever, the German submarines went on sinking ships; 
Bernstorff made his frequent calls of studied impu- 
dence at the White House; German agents blew up 
munitions factories and the warehouses where shells 
were stored before shipment; and the process of 
spreading Prussian gangrene throughout our country 
went on unchecked. 

Worse than this, the military situation in Europe 
was almost disheartening. Imperial Russia had dis- 
appeared and the Germans were preparing to carve 
up the vast amorphous Russian carcass. Having 
driven their way through the Balkans to Constanti- 
nople they were on the point of opening their boasted 
direct route from Berlin to Bagdad. England, France 
and Italy began to feel war-weary. The German sub- 
marines threatened to cut off their supplies of food, 
and unless the Allied countries could be succored 
they might be starved into making peace. When 
they looked across the Atlantic they beheld this 
mighty Republic leaving them in the lurch, too busy 
piling up millions of dollars drawn from the Allies in 
their distress to heed that distress, and drugging their 
compunctions, if they had any, by saying to them- 
selves that a nation may be "too proud to fight," 
and that they had the best authority for remember- 
ing that they must remain "neutral even in thought." 



428 THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

I need not describe in detail what Roosevelt 
thought of this. He himself expressed his scorn for 
making war by rhetoric. He knew that a man may 
boast of coming of fighting blood, and come so late 
that all the fighting quality in the blood has evapo- 
rated. Could not many of the Pacifists trace back to 
Revolutionary and to Puritan ancestors, who fought 
as they prayed, without hesitation or doubt, for the 
Lord of Hosts? They could, and their present atti- 
tude simply made their shame the greater. The Colo- 
nel had said very early in the conflict: " I do not be- 
lieve that the firm assertion of our rights means war, 
but in any event, it is well to remember there are 
things worse than war." In 1917 he declared: "For 
two years after the Lusitania was sunk, we continued 
to fawn on the blood-stained murderers of our people, 
we were false to ourselves and we were false to the 
V cause of right and of liberty and democracy through- 
out the world." He kept hammering at our need of 
preparation. He told a great audience at Detroit:^ 
"We first hysterically announced that we would not 
prepare because we were afraid that preparation 
might make us lose our vantage-ground as a peace- 
loving people. Then we became frightened and 
announced loudly that we ought to prepare; that 
the world was on fire; that our national structure 

1 May 19, 1916. 



PROMETHEUS UNBOUND 429 

was in danger of catching aflame; and that we 
must immediately make ready. Then we turned an- 
other somersault and abandoned all talk of pre- 
paredness; and we never did anything more than 

talk." 

Atlast,at the beginning of 1917, the German truc- 
ulence became too great even for President Wilson 
to palliate. The Kaiser, whose atrocious submarine 
policy had already failed, decided that it could be 
made to succeed by increasing its horror. He pro- 
posed to sink indiscriminately all ships, whether 
neutral or enemy; but out of his Imperial generosity 
he would allow the Americans to send one ship a 
week to Falmouth, England, provided it followed 
a certain line marked out by him on the chart, flew 
a certain flag, and was painted a color which he 
specified. As late as December 18, 1916, the Presi- 
dent had put forth a message only less startling 
than his ''too-proud-to-fight" dictum, in which he 
announced that the warring world must plan for a 
"peace without victory" if it would hope to end 
the war at all. " Peace without victory" would mean, 
of course, a peace favorable to Germany. But the 
Germans, with characteristic stupidity, instead of 
using even a specious courtesy towards the President 
who had been long-suffering in their favor, imme- 
diately sent out their "Qnce-a-week-to-Falmouth" 



430 THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

order. Perhaps they thought that Mr. Wilson would 

consent even to that. 

President Wilson's friends have assured us that he 
devotes himself to finding out what the American 
people wants and then doing it. He soon learned 
what the American people wanted, after it un- 
derstood the purport of the " Once-a-week-to-Fal- 
mouth" order. After the interchange of two or 
three more notes, Congress declared war on Ger- 
many, April 6, 191 7. At last, at the eleventh hour, 
the United States by President Wilson's consent 
joined the great alliance of free nations in their life- 
and-death struggle to make the world safe for De- 
mocracy. 

Now the President had to prepare for war, and pre- 
pare in haste, which rendered careful plans and econ- 
omy impossible. At the start, there was much debate 
over the employment of Volunteers, the rating of 
Regulars, and the carrying out of a selective draft. 

True to his policy of timidity and evasion Presi- 
dent Wilson did not openly declare war on Germany, 
but allowed us to drift into a state of war; so execu- 
tives who do not wish either to sign or veto a bill let 
it become a law without their signatures. His Secre- 
tary of War, Lindley M. Garrison, the only member 
of his Cabinet who had marked ability, had resigned 
the year before, having apparently found the official 



PROMETHEUS UNBOUND 431 

atmosphere uncongenial. At the Plattsburg camp, 
commanded by General Leonard Wood, Colonel 
Roosevelt made a speech of ringing patriotism and 
of unveiled criticism of the lack of energy in the 
Administration. It was not a politic thing to do, 
although there seems to have been some confusion 
between what the Colonel said to the Volunteers in 
camp, and what he said that same evening to a gath- 
ering of civilians in the town. The indiscretion, how- 
ever, gave the Administration the opportunity it had 
been waiting for; but, being unable to punish Roose- 
velt, it severely reprimanded General Wood, who had 
not been aware of what the Colonel intended to say. 
Indeed, the offensive remarks seem to have been ex- 
temporaneous, because, as it was too dark for him to 
read his prepared speech, he spoke impromptu. In 
any event. Secretary Garrison had due notice that 
Roosevelt was to speak, and if he had had any 
doubts he should have sent word to General Wood to 
cancel the engagement. The Administration made as 
much as it could out of this impropriety, but the 
public saw the humor of it, because it knew that Sec- 
retary Garrison agreed with Roosevelt and Wood in 
their crusade for preparedness. 

Later, when Mr. Garrison resigned, President Wil- 
son put Mr. Newton D. Baker, a Pacifist, in his 
place, and after war came, the military preparation 



432 THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

and direction of the United States were entrusted to 
him. But it does not belong to this biographical 
sketch to narrate the story of the American conduct 
of the war under the Wilson Administration. 

To Roosevelt, the vital fact was that war was at 
hand, the great object for which he had striven dur- 
ing two years and eight months, the participation 
in the war which would redeem the honor of the 
United States, call forth the courage of its citizens, 
make Americans alone dominant in America and so 
purge this Republic of the taints of pro-Germanism, 
of commercial greed, and of ignoble worship of ma- 
terial safety, that it could take its part again at the 
head of the democracies of the world. He thanked 
God that his country could stand out again untar- 
nished. And then a great exultation came over him, as 
he believed that at last he himself having put on his 
sword, would be allowed to join the American army 
bound overseas, share its dangers and glories in the 
field, and, if Fate so willed it, pay with his body the 
debt of patriotism which nothing else could pay. 
He wrote immediately to the War Department, offer- 
ing his services and agreeing to raise a division or 
more of Volunteers, to be sent to the front with the 
briefest delay. But Secretary Baker replied that 
without authorization by Congress, he could not 
accept such bodies of Volunteers. On being pressed 



PROMETHEUS UNBOUND 433 

further, Mr. Baker replied that the War College Di- 
vision of the General Staff wished the officers of the 
Regular Army to be kept at home, in order to train 
new men, and then to lead the first contingents which 
might go abroad.^ 

Meanwhile, at the first suggestion that Roosevelt 
might head a body of troops himself, letters poured 
upon him from every State in the Union, from men 
of all classes eager to serve under him, and eager, in 
this way, to wipe out the shame which they felt the 
Administration, by its delays and supineness, had 
put upon the nation. Then Congress passed the 
Draft Law, and, on May 18, Roosevelt appealed 
again, this time directly to President Wilson, offering 
to raise four divisions. The President, in a public 
statement, declared that purely military reasons 
caused him to reject the plan. In a telegram to Colonel 
Roosevelt he said that his action was " based entirely 
upon imperative considerations of public policy, and 
not upon personal or private choice." Roosevelt 
summed up the contention with this flat contradic- 
tion: "President Wilson's reasons for refusing my 
offer had nothing to do either with military con- 
siderations or with public needs." 

* The entire correspondence between General Wood and President 
Wilson and Secretary Baker is given in The Foes of Our Own House- 
hold, by Theodore Roosevelt (Doran, New York, 1917), pp. 304-47. 



434 THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

Roosevelt issued an announcement to the men who 
had applied for service under him — they were said 
already to number over 300,000 — regretting that 
they could not all go together on their country's er- 
rand, and brushing aside the insinuation of his ene 
mies that he was merely seeking political and self- 
ish ends. That is a charge, of course, to which all of 
our statesmen, from Washington down, have been ex- 
posed. Its final refutation comes from examining the 
entire public career and the character of the person 
accused. To any one who knew what Roosevelt's 
life had been, and who knew how poignantly he felt 
the national dangers and humiliation of the past 
three years, the idea that he was playing politics, 
and merely pretending to be terribly in earnest as a 
patriot, is grotesque. And I believe that no greater 
disappointment ever came to him than when he was 
prohibited from going out to battle in 191 7. 

Mr. Wilson and the obsolescent members of the 
General Staff had obviously a plausible reason when 
they said that the European War was not an affair 
for amateurs; that no troops, however brave and 
willing, could, like the Rough Riders in the Spanish 
War, be fitted for action in a month. Only by long 
drill and by the coordination of all branches of the 
service, organized on a vaster scale than the world 
had ever seen before, and commanded by experts, 



PROMETHEUS UNBOUND 435 

could an army enter the field with any hope of hold- 
ing its own against the veteran armies of Europe. 

We may accept this plea, but the fact remains 
that President Wilson refused to make the very ob- 
vious use of Roosevelt which he might have made. 
Roosevelt was known throughout the world as the 
incarnation of Americanism. If he had been sent to 
Europe in April, 191 7, when he first requested, with 
only a corporal's guard to attend him, he would have 
been a visible proof to the masses in England, in 
France, and in Italy, that the United States had ac- 
tually joined the Allies. He would have been the 
forerunner of the armies that were to follow, and 
his presence would have heartened immensely the 
then sorely perplexed, if not discouraged, populations 
which the Hun seemed sure to overwhelm. 

But President Wilson had shown no desire to em- 
ploy any American on any task where he might get 
credit which the President coveted for himself. In 
his Cabinet, his rule was to appoint only mediocre or 
third-class persons, whose opinions he did not think 
it necessary to consult. It was quite unlikely, there- 
fore, that he would give Roosevelt any chance to 
shine in the service of the country, for Roosevelt was 
not only his political opponent, but his most formi- 
dable critic, who had laid bare the weakness of the 
Wilson regime. When Cavour was assembling all the 



436 THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

elements In Italy to undertake the great struggle for 
Italian liberty and independence, he adroitly se- 
cured the cooperation of Garibaldi and his followers, 
although Garibaldi had declared himself the personal 
enemy of Cavour. Personal enemy or not, Cavour 
would have him as a symbol, and Garibaldi's con- 
currence proved of immense value to Italy. So would 
that of Roosevelt have proved to the Allies if he had 
been officially accredited by President Wilson. But 
Cavour was a statesman, who looked far ahead, a 
patriot uninfluenced by personal likes and dislikes. 

Roosevelt felt his own deprivation mightily, but 
the shutting-out of General Leonard Wood roused 
his anger — all injustice roused his anger. As the 
motive for General Wood's exclusion was not frankly 
avowed, the public naturally drew its own inferences. 
To him, more than to any other American, we owed 
what little preparation for war existed when we en- 
tered the war. He founded the Plattsburg Camp; he 
preached very solemnly our needs and our dangers; 
and he did these things at the very period when Pres- 
ident Wilson was assuring the country that we ought 
not to think of preparing. Doubtless, in 1919, Mr. Wil- 
son would be glad to have those sayings of his, and 
many others — including the "too proud to fight," 
the laudation of German "humanity and justice," 
the "war-mad Europe," whose ravings did not con- 



PROMETHEUS UNBOUND 437 

cern us, the " peace without victory " forgotten; but 
that cannot be, and they rise to accuse him now. 
Macbeth did not welcome the inopportune visit of 
the Murderers and of Banquo's Ghost at his ban- 
quet. 

General Wood had to be disciplined for allowing 
Colonel Roosevelt to make his impolitic speech to the 
Plattsburg Volunteers; he was accordingly removed 
from his New York headquarters to the South and 
then to Camp Funston in Kansas. It was even pro- 
posed to relegate him to the Philippines. When our 
troops began to go to France, he earnestly hoped to 
accompany them. There were whispers that he was 
physically unfit for the stress of active war: but the 
most diligent physical examination by Army surgeons 
who would have overlooked no defects, showed him 
to be a man of astonishing health and vigor, as sound 
as hickory. On the technical side, the best military 
experts regarded him as the best general officer in 
the American Army. Nevertheless, in spite of his 
ph^^sical and military qualifications. President Wil- 
son rejected him. Why? The unsympathetic asserted 
that Mr. Wilson took care to assign no conspicuous 
officer to service abroad who might win laurels which 
would bring him forward as a Presidential possibility 
in 1920. On the other hand, cynics, remembering the 
immemorial jealousy between the Regulars and Vol- 



438 THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

unteers in both the Army and Navy, declared that an 
outsider Hke General Wood, who had not come into 
the Army through West Point, could expect no fairer 
treatment from the Staff which his achievements and 
irregular promotion had incensed. History may be 
trusted to judge equitably on whom to place the 
blame. But as Americans recede from the event, their 
amazement will increase that any personal pique or 
class jealousy should have deprived the United 
States from using the soldier best equipped for war 
at the point where war was raging.^ 

While Roosevelt could not denounce the Admin- 
istration for debarring himself from military service 
abroad, he could, and did, attack it for its treatment 
of General Wood, treatment which both did injustice 
to a brave and very competent soldier and deprived 
our Army in its need of a precious source of strength. 
Perhaps he drew some grim amusement from the 
banal utterances of the Honorable Newton D. Baker, 

* In June, 1915, Colonel Paul Azan, who came to this country to 
command the French officers who taught American Volunteers at 
Harvard, and subsequently was commissioned by the French Govern- 
ment to oversee the work of all the French officers in the United States, 
told me that the Camp and Division commanded by General Wood 
were easily the best in the country and that General Wood was the 
only General we had who in knowledge and efficiency came up to the 
highest French standard. Colonel Azan added that he was suggesting 
to the French War Department to invite the United States Govern- 
ment to send General Wood to France, but this request, if ever made, 
was not followed. 



PROMETHEUS UNBOUND 439 

Secretary of War, whom he frequently referred to 
with appropriate comment. Two months after we 
entered the war, Mr. Baker issued an official bulletin 
in which he admitted the "difficulty, disorder, and 
confusion in getting things started, but," he said, 
"it is a happy confusion. I delight in the fact that 
when we entered this war we were not, like our ad- 
versary, ready for it, anxious for it, prepared for it, 
and inviting it. Accustomed to peace, we were not 
ready." ^ Could any one, except a very young child 
at a soap-bubble party in the nursery, have spoken 
thus? But Mr. Baker was not a very young child, he 
was a Pacifist; he did not write from a nursery, but 
from the War Department of the United States. In 
the following October he announced with undisguised 
self-satisfaction: "We are well on the way to the 
battle-field." This was too much for Roosevelt, who 
wrote: "For comparison with this kind of military 
activity we must go back to the days of Tiglath- 
Pileser, Nebuchadnezzar and Pharaoh. The United 
States should adopt the standard of speed in war 
which belongs to the twentieth century a.d.; we 
should not be content with, and still less boast about, 
standards which were obsolete in the seventeenth 
century B.C." 

Roosevelt had now made a contract with the 

* Official War Bulletin, June 7, 1917. 



440 THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

Metropolitan Magazine to furnish to it a monthly ar- 
ticle on any topic he chose, and he was also writing 
for the Kansas City Star frequent, and often daily, 
: editorial articles. Through these he gave vent to his 
passionate patriotism and the reader who wishes to 
measure both the variety and the vigor of his polem- 
ics at this time should look through the files of those 
journals. But this work by no means limited his 
activity. As occasion stirred him, he dispatched hif 
communications to other journals. He wrote letters 
which were really elaborated arguments, to chance 
correspondents, and he made frequent addresses. 
The necessity of hurrying on the preparation of our 
army and of backing up our troops with undivided 
enthusiasm were his main theme. 

But he delivered himself on other subjects almost 
equally important. He paid his respects to the " Con- 
scientious Objector," and he insisted at all times that 
"Murder is not debatable." "Murder is murder," 
he wrote Professor Felix Frankfurter, "and it is 
rather more evil when committed in the name of a 
professed social movement." ^ Mr. Frankfurter was 
then acting, by appointment of President Wilson, 
as counsel to a Mediation Commission, which was 
dealing with recent crimes of the Industrial Workers 

^ December 19, 1917. Letter printed in full in the Boston Herald, 
June 4, 1919. 



PROMETHEUS UNBOUND 441 

of the World. Anarchists, when arrested, had a sus- 
picious way of professing that they espoused anarch- 
ism only as a "philosophical" theory. Roosevelt 
branded several of the palliators of these — "the 
Hearsts and La Toilettes and Bergers and Hillquits," 
and others — as reactionaries, as the " Bolsheviki of 
America," who really abetted the violent criminals 
by pleading for leniency for them on the ground that 
after all they were only "philosophical" theorists. 
Roosevelt was not fooled by any such plea. "When 
you," he told Mr. Frankfurter, "as representing 
President Wilson, find yourself obliged to champion 
men of this stamp [the "philosophical" criminals], 
you ought by unequivocal affirmative action to make 
it evident that you are sternly against their general 
and habitual line of conduct." 

So Roosevelt pursued, without resting, his cam- 
paign to stimulate the patriotic zeal of his country- 
men and to rebuke the delays and blunders of the 
Administration. If any one had said that he was 
making rhetoric a substitute for warfare — the accu- 
sation with which he charged President Wilson — 
he would have replied that Wilson condemned him 
to use the pen instead of the sword. Forbidden to go 
himself, he felt supreme satisfaction in the going of 
all his four sons, and of his son-in-law. Dr. Richard 
Derby. They did honor to the Roosevelt name. 



442 THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

Theodore, Jr., became a Lieutenant-Colonel, Kermit 
and Archibald became Captains; and Quentin, the 
youngest, a Lieutenant of Aviation, was killed in an 
air battle. 

Roosevelt was prevented from fighting in France, 
indeed, but he was gratified to learn from good 
authority that his efforts in the spring of 191 7 to 
secure a commission and lead troops over seas were 
the immediate cause of the sending of any American 
troops. President Wilson, it was reported had no 
intention, when we went to war, of risking American 
lives over there, and the leisurely plans which he 
made for creating and training an army seemed to 
confirm this report. But Roosevelt's insistence and 
the great mass of volunteers who begged to be al- 
lowed to join his divisions, if they were organized, 
awakened the President to the fact that the Ameri- 
can people expected our country to give valid mili- 
tary support to the Allies, at death-grapple with the 
Hun. The visit in May, 191 7, of a French Mission 
including famous Marshal Joffre, and of an English 
Mission under Mr. Arthur Balfour, and their plain 
revelation of the dire distress of the French and 
British armies, forced Mr. Wilson to promise imme- 
diate help; for Joffre and Balfour made him under- 
stand that unless help came soon, it would come too 
late. So President Wilson, who hoped to go down in 



PROMETHEUS UNBOUND 443 

history as the Peacemaker of the World War, and as 
the organizer of an American Army, which, without 
s-hedding a drop of blood, had brought peace about, 
was compelled to send the only too willing American 
soldiers, by the hundred thousand and the million, 
to join the Allied veterans in France. 

Persons who do not penetrate beneath the flicker- 
ing surfaces of life, regard these last years of Roose- 
velt's as an anticlimax which he passed in eclipse; 
as if they were the eight lean and overshadowed 
years, following the splendid decade in which as 
Governor and President he had the world's admira- 
tion and consent. But this view wholly misconceives 
him. It takes a man who had proved himself to be 
the greatest moral force in the public life of the world, 
and drops him when he steps down from the seat of 
power. Now, of course, Theodore Roosevelt did not 
require to walk on a high platform or to sit in the 
equivalent of a throne in order to be Roosevelt; and 
if we would read the true meaning of his life we must 
understand that the years which followed 1910 were 
the culmination and crown of all that went before. 

He was a fighter from the days when, as a little 
boy, he fought the disease which threatened to 
make his existence puny and crippled. He was a 
fighter, and from his vantage-ground as President, 



444 THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

he fought so valiantly that the world took notice and 
he brought new ideals into the hearts of the Ameri- 
can people. He was just as brave and resourceful and 
tenacious a fighter when he led the forlorn hope, as 
when he marched at the head of the Nation in his 
campaigns against corruption and the mercenaries 
of Mammon. During these later years he gave up 
everything — his ease, his probable restoration to 
power, the friendships that were very dear to him, 
even his party which no longer, as he thought, fol- 
lowed the path of righteousness, or desired righteous 
ends — for the Cause to which he had been dedicated 
since youth. Analyze his acts at any period, and you 
will find that they were determined by his loyalty 
to that Cause. 

And how could so great a soul exercise itself to the 
full, except by grappling with adversity? The pros- 
perous days seemed to fit him like a skin, but only 
in these days of apparent thwarting and disappoint- 
ment could he show himself equal to any blows of 
Fate. At first he struggled magnificently against 
crushing odds, asking no allowances and no favors. 
He founded and led the Progressive Party and, in 
1912, received the most amazing popular tribute in 
our history. And he would have pushed on his work 
for that party had not the coming of the World War 
changed his perspective. Thenceforth, he devoted 



PROMETHEUS UNBOUND 445 

himself to saving civilization from the reptilian and 
atrocious Hun; that was a task, in comparison with 
which the fortune of a political party sank out of 
sight. 

His work demanded of him to rouse his country- 
men from the apathy and indifference which a timid 
Administration breathed upon it, and from the 
lethargic slumber into which the pro-Germans 
drugged it. During four years, his was the one 
voice in the United States which could not be si- 
lenced. He was listened to everywhere. Men might 
agree with him or not, but they listened to him, and 
they trusted him. Never for a moment did they sus- 
pect that he was slyly working for the enemy, or for 
special interests here or abroad. 

He, the supreme American, spoke for America 
and for the civilization which he believed America 
fulfilled. His attacks on the delays and the incompe- 
tence, on the faint-heartedness and contradictions 
of the Administration had no selfish object. His 
heart was wrenched by the humiliation into which the 
honor of the United States had been dragged. The 
greatest patriotic service which he could render was 
to lift it out of that slough, and he did. The best 
evidence that he was right lies in the fact that Presi- 
dent Wilson, tardily, reluctantly, adopted, one by 
one, Roosevelt's demands. He rejected Prepared- 



446 THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

ness, when it could have been attained with compar- 
ative leisure; he accepted it, when it had to be driven 
through at top speed. And so of the other vitally 
necessary things. He ceased to warn Americans that 
they must be neutral "even in thought"; he ceased 
to comfort them by the assurance that a nation may 
be "too proud to fight" ; he ceased to extol the "jus- 
tice and humanity of the Germans." That he suf- 
fered these changes was owing to the fact that 
American public opinion, largely influenced by 
Roosevelt's word and example, would not tolerate 
them any more. And President Wilson, when he can^ 
follows public opinion. 

Roosevelt took personal pleasure in the bridging 
of the chasm which had opened between him and 
his former party intimates. On neither side was there 
recantation, but they could unite again on the ques- 
tion of the War and America's duty towards it, which 
swallowed up partisan grievances. Many of the old- 
time Republicans who had broken politically from 
Roosevelt in 1912, remained devoted personal friends, 
and the}^ tried to reunite him and the discordant 
fragments. One of these friends was Colonel Robert 
Bacon, whom every one loved and trusted, a born 
conciliator. He it was who brought Roosevelt and 
Senator Root together, after more than five years' 
estrangement. He gave a luncheon, at which they 



PROMETHEUS UNBOUND 447 

and General Leonard Wood met, and they all soon 
fell into the old-time familiarity. Roosevelt urged 
vehemently his desire to go to France, and said that 
he would go as a private if he could not lead a regi- 
ment; that he was willing to die in France for the 
Cause. At which Mr. Root, with his characteristic 
wit, said: "Theodore, if you will promise to die 
there, Wilson will give you any commission you 
want, tomorrow." 

Roosevelt never fully recovered from the infection 
which the fever he caught in Brazil left in his system. 
It manifested itself in different ways and the one 
thing certain was that it could not be cured. He paid 
little attention to it except when it actually sent 
him to bed. In the winter of 1918, it caused so serious 
an inflammation of the mastoid that he was taken 
to the hospital and had to undergo an operation. 
For several days his life hung by a thread. But, on 
his recovery, he went about as usual, and the public 
was scarcely aware of his lowered condition. He 
wrote and spoke, and seemed to be acting with his 
customary vigor. That summer, however, on July 
14th, his youngest son, Quentin, First Lieutenant in 
the 95th American Aero Squadron, was killed in an 
air battle near Chambray, France. The lost child is 
the dearest. Roosevelt said nothing, but he never 
^ot over Quentin's loss. No doubt he often asked, in 



448 THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

silence, why he, whose sands were nearly run, had 
not been taken and the youth, who had a lifetime to 
look forward to, had not been spared. The day after 
the news came, the New York State Republican 
Convention met at Saratoga. Roosevelt was to 
address it, and he walked up the aisle without hesi- 
tating, and spoke from the platform as if he had no 
thoughts in his heart, except the political and patri- 
otic exhortation which he poured out. 

He passed a part of the summer with his daughter, 
Mrs. Derby, on the coast of Maine; and in the early 
autumn, at Carnegie Hall, he made his last public 
speech, in behalf of Governor Whitman's candidacy. 
A little after this, he appeared for the last time in 
public at a meeting in honor of a negro hospital unit. 
In a few days another outbreak of the old infection 
caused his removal to the Roosevelt Hospital. The 
date was November nth, — the day when the 
Armistice was signed. He remained at the hospital 
until Christmas Eve, often suffering acutely from 
inflammatory rheumatism, the name the physicians 
gave to the new form the infection took. He saw his 
friends for short intervals, he followed the news, and 
even dictated letters on public subjects, but his 
family understood that his marvelous physical 
strength was being sadly exhausted. He longed to 
be taken home to Sagamore Hill, and when his 



PROMETHEUS UNBOUND 449 

doctor allowed him to go home, he was greatly 
cheered. 

To spend Christmas there, with his family, even 
though he had to spend it very quietly, delighted 
him. For ten days he seemed to be gaining, he read 
much, and dictated a good deal. On January 5th, he 
reviewed a book on pheasants and wrote also a little 
message to be read at the meeting of the American 
Defense Society, which he was unable to attend. 
That evening he spent with the family, going to bed 
at eleven o'clock. "Put out the light, please," he 
said to his attendant, James Amos, and no one heard 
his voice again. A little after four o'clock the next 
morning, Amos, noticing that he breathed strangely, 
called the nurse, and when they reached his bedside, 
Roosevelt was dead. A blood clot in his heart had 
killed him. Death had unbound Prometheus. 

By noon on that day, the 6th of January, 1919, 
the whole world knew of his death, and as the news 
sank in, the sense of an unspeakable void was felt 
everywhere. He was buried on January 8th, on a 
knoll in the small country graveyard, which he and 
Mrs. Roosevelt had long before selected, overlooking 
Oyster Bay and the waters of the Sound. His family 
and relatives and dear friends, and a few persons 
who represented State and Nation, the Rough Rid- 
ers, and learned societies, attended the services in 



450 THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

the little church. Just as the coffin was being borne 
in, the sun came out and streamed through the 
stained-glass windows. "The services were most im- 
pressive in their simplicity, in their sense of intimacy, 
in the sentiment that filled the hour and the place of 
personal loss and of pride of possession of a priceless 
memory." The bearers took the coffin through the 
grove, with its bare trees and light sifting of snow, 
to the grave; and as it was committed, there were 
many sobs and tears of old and young. Rough Riders, 
who had fought by his side, cabinet ministers who 
had served with him, companions of his work and of 
his playtime, were all mourners now, and some of 
those men of affairs, who had done their utmost to 
wreck him eight years before, now knew that they 
had loved him, and they grieved as they realized 
what America and the world had lost. ''Death had 
to take him sleeping," said Vice-President Marshall; 
"for if Roosevelt had been awake, there would have 
been a fight." 



The evil men do lives after them; so does the good. 
With the passing of years, a man's name and fame 
either drift into oblivion, or they are seen in their 
lasting proportions. You must sail fifty miles over 
the Ionian Sea and look back before you can fully 
measure the magnitude and majesty of Mount ^tna. 



PROMETHEUS UNBOUND 451 

Not otherwise, I believe, will it be with Theodore 
Roosevelt, when the people of the future look back 
upon him. The blemishes due to misunderstanding 
will have faded away; the transient clouds will have 
vanished; the world will see him as he was. 

I do not mean that it will reduce him to an abstrac- 
tion of perfection, as ill-judged worshipers of George 
Washington attempted to do with him. Theodore 
Roosevelt was so vastly human, that no worshiper 
can make him abstract and retain recognizable fea- 
tures. We have reached the time when we will not 
suffer anybody to turn our great ones into gods or 
demigods, and to remove them far from us to dwell, 
like absentee deities, on a remote Olympus, or in an 
unimaginable Paradise; we must have them near, 
intimates whom our souls can converse with, and our 
hearts love. Such an intimate was Roosevelt living, 
and such an intimate will he be dead. Washington, 
Lincoln, Roosevelt — those are the three whom 
Americans will cherish and revere; each of them a 
leader and representative and example in a structural 
crisis in our national life. 

Those of us who knew him, knew him as the most 
astonishing human expression of the Creative Spirit 
we had ever seen. His manifold talents, his protean 
interests, his tireless energy, his thunderbolts which 
he did not let loose, as well as those he did, his mas- 



452 THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

terful will sheathed in self-control like a sword in 
its scabbard, would have rendered him superhuman, 
had he not possessed other qualities which made him 
the best of playmates for mortals. He had humor, 
which raises every one to the same level. He had 
loyalty, which bound his friends to him for life. He 
had sympathy, and capacity for strong, deep love. 
How tender he was with little children ! How courte- 
ous with women! No matter whether you brought 
to him important things or trifles, he understood. 

I can think of no vicissitude in life in which Roose- 
velt's participation would not have been welcome. 
If it were danger, there could be no more valiant 
comrade than he; if it were sport, he was a sports- 
man; if it were mirth, he was a fountain of mirth, 
crystal pure and sparkling. He would have sailed 
with Jason on the ship Argo in quest of the Golden 
Fleece, and he would have written a vivid description 
of the adventure. I can imagine the delight he would 
have taken, as the comrade of Ulysses, on his voy- 
age through the Midland Sea, looking with unjaded 
curiosity on strange towns and into strange faces, 
and steering fearlessly out to the Hesperides, and 
beyond the baths of all the western stars. What a 
Crusader he would have been! How he would have 
smitten the Paynim with his sword, and then unvis- 
ored and held chivalrous interview with Saladin! 



PROMETHEUS UNBOUND 453 

Had he companioned Columbus, he would not have 
been one of those who murmured and besought the 
great Admiral to turn back, but would have coun- 
seled, "On! On! It is of little matter whether any one 
man fails or succeeds; but the cause shall not fail, for 
it is the cause of mankind." I can see him with the 
voyageurs of New France, exploring the Canadian 
Wilderness, and the rivers and forests of the North- 
west. I can see him with Lasalle, beaming with exul- 
tation as they looked on the waters of the Mississippi ; 
and I can think of no battle for man's welfare in 
which he would not have felt at home. But he would 
have taken equal, perhaps greater, delight in meet- 
ing the authors, sages, and statesmen, whose words 
were his daily joy, and whose deeds were his study 
and incentive. I can hear him question Thucydides 
for further details as to the collapse of the Athenians 
at Sjracuse ; or cross-examine Herodotus for informa- 
tion of some of his incredible but fascinating stories. 
What hours he would have spent in confabulation 
with Gibbon! What secrets he would have learned, 
without asking questions, from Napoleon and 
Cavour ! 

His interest embraced them all, some of them he 
could have taught, many of them would have wel- 
comed him as their peer. As he mixed with high and 
low in his lifetime, so would it have been in the past; 



454 THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

and so will it be in the future, if he has gone into 
a world where personal identity continues, and the 
spiritual standards and ideals of this world persist. 
But yesterday, he seemed one who embodied Life to 
the utmost. With the assured step of one whom noth- 
ing can frighten or surprise, he walked our earth, 
as on granite. Suddenly, the granite grew more un- 
substantial than a bubble, and he dropped beyond 
sight into the Eternal Silence. Happy we who had 
such a friend! Happy the American Republic which 
bore such a son! 



THE END 



Mr. John Woodbury, Secretary of the Harvard 
Class of 1880, in sending to his classmates a notice 
of Theodore Roosevelt's death on January 6, 1919, 
added this quotation from the second part of Bun- 
yan's "Pilgrim's Progress:" 

"After this it was noised abroad that Mr. Valiant- 
for-truth was taken with a summons by the same 
post as the other, and had this for a token that the 
summons was true, ' That his pitcher was broken at 
the fountain.' When he understood it, he called for 
his friends and told them of it. Then he said, ' I am 
going to my Father's, and though with great diffi- 
culty I have got hither, yet now I do not repent me 
of all the trouble I have been at to arrive where I 
am. My sword I give to him that shall succeed me 
in my pilgrimage, and my courage and skill to him 
that can get it. My marks and scars I carry with me, 
to be a witness for me that I have fought His battles 
who now will be mv rewarder.'" 



INDEX 



INDEX 



(R. stands for the subject of the biography.) 



Adams, Charles Francis, 54. 

Adams, Henry, quoted, on Hay, 173; let- 
ters of Hay to, 156, 229. 

Adams, John, 333. 

Addams, Jane, 374, 375. 

Africa, R.'s big-game-hunting expedition 
to, 3i9Jf- 

Alabama, The, 4. 

Alaska, boundary of, 174/-, 201. 

Albany Evening Journal, 400. 

Aldrich, Chester H., 351. 

Aldrich, Nelson W., 132, 194, 310, 339, 
340. 

Algedras, Conference of, suggested by R., 
202, 228. 

Alger, Russell A., Secretary of War, offers 
R. a commission, 122; 123. 

Allen, Henry J., 368. 

Allison, William B., 310, 311. 

Alpha Delta Phi Fraternity, 20, 21. 

Alsace-Lorraine, 410. 

Alverstone, Richard Webster, Baron, 175, 
177. 

"America the Unready," 130. 

American Defense Society, 449. 

American Museum of Natural History, 

391- 
Americans, the "spread-eagle" variety 

of, 120. 
Amos, James, 449. 
Ananias Club, 204, 209. 
Andrews, Judge (New York), 144, 145. 
Anti-Imperialists, 170, 171, 173, 189. 
Army, R.'s orders concerning forced 

marches of, 264, 265. 
Arthur, Chester A., 276. 
Austria, 402. 
Aylesworth, A. B., 175. 
;\zan. Pad, quoted, on General Wood, 

438 ». 

Bacon, Robert, 446. 

Bad Lands, 58. 

Baker, Newton D., Secretary of War, 
431, 432; declines R.'s offer to raise vol- 
unteers, 432, 433 and «.; his "banal 
utterances," 438, 439' 



Balfour, Arthur J., debt of the U.S. ta 
218; 175,442. 

Ballinger, Richard A., Secretary of the 
Interior, his controversy with Pin- 
chot, 335; investigated and exonerated, 
336. 

Barnard, F. A. P., 30. 

Barnes, William, Jr., sues R. for libel, 
399; and is beaten, 400, 401; 362, 363, 
384. 

Bass, Robert P., 351, 354- 

Bayard, Thomas P., 293. 

Belgium, 402. 

Bell, J. F., General, U.S.A., 264. 

Benton, Thomas Hart, 76, 294. 

Berger, Victor, 441. 

Bernstorff, Count Johann, German Am- 
bassador to U.S., his pernicious activity, 
405; and the Lusilania, 409, 411; 418, 
427. 

Bethmann-Hollweg, Herr von, German 
Chancellor, 418. 

Beveridge, Albert J., Chairman of the Pro- 
gressive Convention of 1912, 373; 238, 

3",379- 
"Big Business," influence and power of, 

137, 138. And see Interests, the. 
"Big Stick, the," 202, 288. 
Bismarck, Prince Otto von, 165. 
Black, Frank S., 136, 137. 
Black, William T., 30. 
"Black -Horse Cavalry," 40, 41. 
Blackmail in N.Y. Police Dept., 98, 99, 

102, 103. 
Blaine, James G., unsuccessful candidate 

for Republican nomination in 1880, 47; 

his character and political methods, 48; 

nothing of his lives after him, 48, 49; his 

nomination in 1884 splits the party, 

so/.; supported by R., 52 /., defeated, 

55:71,387. 
Bliss, George, 41. 
"Bloody Shirt, the," 48. 
Boone, Daniel, 75, 76. 
Boston, alarm in, at approach of hostility's 

with Spdn, 119; R.'s opinion of, 119. 
Boston Herald, 440 ». 



460 



INDEX 



Boswell, James, 89. 

Boutros Pasha, 320. 

Bowen, Herbert W., 220. 

Brazil, and the River of Doubt, 391 /. 

Brownsville (Texas), shot up by negro 
troops, 296, 297. ..'4 

Bryan, William J., renominated for Presi- 
dent in 1900, 150, 151; again defeated, 
152; his third candidacy (1908), 315; 
348, 409, 418, 419- 

Bryce, James [Viscount], quoted, on R., 

157. 

Buenz, Herr, 222. 

BuUalo, McKinley assassinated at, 154. 

Bullard, Willard, 30. 

Bulloch, Irvine, 4, 284. 

Bulloch, James, 4. 5. 205, 284. 

Bulloch, Martha, R.'s mother. See Roose- 
velt, Mrs. Martha. 

Billow, Prince von, German Chancellor, 
and the Moroccan dispute, 228, 229. 

Bimau-Varilla, Philippe, and the Panama 
revolution, 185. 

Bunyan, John, Pilgrim's Progress, 79, 455. 

Burke, Edmund, 80. 

Cambridge (England) University, gives R. 
honorary degree, 327.329; R-'s- address 
at, 328. 

Campaign contributions from corpora- 
tions, act prohibiting, 232. 

Canada, relations between U.S. and, 174 J^- 

Cannon, Joseph G., 310, 343. 344. 348. 

Capital, and Labor, opening of gulf be- 
tween, 163, 164; antagonism between, in 
U.S., 166/., 233; arrogance of, 166; R.'s 
attitude toward, 212; its abuse of R., 
213. And see Interests, the. 

Carey, Joseph M., 351. 

Carow, Edith Kermit, marries R., 71; 10. 
See Roosevelt, Mrs. Edith Carow. 

Cattle thieves in the West, 64-66. 

Cavour, Count Camillo, 38, 296, 353, 435. 
436. 

Cervera, Admiral de, 181. 

Chaffee, Adna, U.S.A., 274. 

Chamberlain, Joseph, 175, 176. 

Cherrie, George K., 394. 

Chichester, Captain, R. N., 218. 

Child Labor in District of Columbia, act 
prohibiting, 231. 

China, the Open Door in, 229. 

Choate, Joseph H., 30, 31, 107, 108. 



Christ Church, Cambridge, R. teaches is 

Sunday School of, 22. 
Cigar-makers, Hving conditions of, in N.Y., 
42, 43; R.'s bill for benefit of, declared 
imconstitutional by Court of Appeals. 
42, 43- 
Civil Service in N.Y., R. and, 137. 
Civil Service Commission appointed by 
President Harrison, 89, 90; R. directs 
poUcy of, 90^.; attacked by Grosven»r 
and Gorman, 91-95; tribulations of, 95, 
96. 
Civil Service Law, how enforced by R., 

91/. 
Civil Service Reform, why imperative, 
85 £.; under Cleveland, 89; under R. 
as Commissioner, 90 ff. 
Civil War, the, economic effects of, 162. 
Class antagonism, menace of, 233. 
Classified Civil Service, extension of, by 

R., 96. 
Clayton, Powell, 49. 
Clayton-Bulwer treaty, 178, 182. 
Cleveland, Grover, Governor of New York, 
39; nominated by Democrats for Presi- 
dent in 1884, 50; supported by "Mug- 
mumps," 51, 54; elected, 55, 56; and 
Civil Service Reform, 89; reappoints R. 
on Commission, 96; his second elecrion, 
96; his Venezuela message and its effect, 
115, 172, 191; on the Monroe Doctrine, 
172; 131, 204, 207, 208, 214, 215, 217, 
309, 310, 313. 
Coal-mine operators. See Coal strike of 

1902. 
Coal-miners. See Coal strike of 1902. 
Coal strike of 1902, settled by R., 245; R. 
quoted on settlement of, 246, 247; effect 
of his action, 247, 248. 
Colombia, United States of, and the Hay- 
Herran treaty, 182 J'.; blackmailing 
methods of, 183, 184; and the revolu- 
tion in Panama, 186/.; change of atti- 
tude of, 186, 187; German influence in, 
against Hay-Herran treaty, 225. 
Commerce and Labor, Department of, 

231. 
Congress, important acts passed by, dur- 
ing R.'s presidency, 231, 232; and the 
Navy, 287. And see United States 
Senate. 
Conkling, Roscoe, 89. 
Conservation, R. 's achievement in, 236 Jf ; 



INDEX 



461 



the Ballinger-Pinchot controversy, 335. 

336. 
Consular service, reformation of, 232. 
Cooper, J. Fenimore, 8. 
Corporations, taxation of, m New York, 

137, 1- 
Corporations, Bureau of, 231. 
Corruption in New York State, attacked 

byR.,34/- 
Corse, John M., 97- 
Cortelyou, George B., IS4, 307- 
Costello, Michael, 40. 
Courts, R.'s attitude toward, 38S. 38o- 

And see Judicial Recall. 
Cowles, WilUam S., U.S.N., 277- 
Cowles, Mrs. William S., R.'s sister, 277- 
Crane, W. Murray, 362, 363- 
Croker, Richard, 102, 131. 
Cromwell, Oliver, 76. 
Cromwell, William Nelson, 185. 
Cuba, insurrection in, 115; American 
sympathy for, 115, "6; becomes a re- 
pubUc, 170. And see Havana, and Span- 
ish War. 
Cullom, Shelby M., 276. 
Curtis, George WilUam, leader of the Mug- 
mumps in 1884, 54; quoted, on R.'s 
course, 55- , „ 

Curzon, George Nathaniel, Earl, 328, 329- 
Cutler, Arthur H., I3- 
Czolgosz, Leon, murders McKinley, I54- 

Dana, Charles A., 50, SL I07. 108. 

Darwin, Charles, 38. 

Da vies, Henry E., 30- 

Defoe, Daniel, 80. a -o t\. 

Democracy, progress of, IS9 #■; K. tne 
chief interpreter of the highest type of 
American, 249- _, , , 

Democratic Party, nominates Cleveland 

in 1884, so- 
Democratic platform of 1912, 382. 
Democrats, control House of Represen- 
tatives in 62d Congress, 343; and the 
Progressive platform of 191 2, 375. 37o. 
Derby, Mrs. Ethel, R.'s daughter, 448. 
Derby, Richard, R.'s son-in-law, 441 • 
Dewey, George, U.S.N., R.'s instructions 
to, at Hong Kong, 121; destroys Span- 
ish fleet in Manila Bay, 121; and Ad- 
miral von Diederichs, 218; 221, 222, 
288. 
"Dickey," the, 19. 



Diederichs, Admiral von, 21S. 
Dixon, Joseph M., 378. 
Douglas, Mr., 44, 45- 
Dow, Wilmot, 17, 58, 65, S3. 
Dunbar, Charles F., 293. 
Dwight, Theodore W., 30. 

Edmimds, George F., 49- 

Edward VEE, R. special envoy at funeral 

of, 32s. 326. 
Edwards, Jonathan, 72. , 

Egypt, NationaUst Party in, 320; R. s 
speech on affairs in, at London, 327, 328. 
Elective system at Harvard, 14. 
Eliot, Charles W., reforms instituted by, 
as President of Harvard, 14, I5 ; 108, 293. 
Elkhom Ranch, R.'s life at, 59. 60. 256, 

258. 
Elkins Anti-Rebate Act, 231. 
Emergency Currency Act, 232. 
Emerson, Ralph Waldo, 25. 
Employers' Liability Act, 231. 
England, and Cleveland's Venezuela mes- 
sage, 115; R.'s visit to, 325/-; German 
propaganda against, in U.S., 4o6._ _ 
Equality, distinction between political, 

and social and industrial, 164, 165. 
Europe, R.'s triumphal tour through, 

320 f. 
Evans, Robley D., U.S.N., commands 
Great Fleet on voyage round the world, 
287, «88. 



Fairbanks, Charles W., 323. 327- 

Family, the, R. an upholder of, 280 

Fish, Mrs. Hamilton, 9. 

Forbes, W. Cameron, appointed Governor- 
General of PhiUppines, 173- 

Ford, Henry, 4I9- 

Fosdick, Frederick, 369. 

France, and Germany, in Morocco, 227; 
402. 

Franchise tax bill (N.Y.), I37-I39- 

Francis Joseph, Emperor, 324. 

Frankfurter, Felix, letter of R. to, 440, 441- 

Frederick the Great, 410. 

Frick, Henry C, 239. 

Free Silver issue, in campaign of 1900, 150. 
151- McKinley's attitude toward, 170. 

French (Panama) Canal Co., suspends 
work, 179; seUs out to U.S., 182/.; and 
the revolution in Panama, 184 /•; I90- 
French Revolution, 160. 



462 



INDEX 



Garfield, James A., nominated for Presi- 
dent in 1880, 47. 

Garibaldi, Giuseppe, 124, 321, 436. 

Garrison, Lindley M., Secretary of War, 
resigns, 430; Gen. Wood reprimanded 

by, 431- 
Gary, Elbert H., 239. 
George, Henry, nominated for Mayor of 
New York by United Labor Party, 69, 
70, 71; Progress and Poverty, 70. 
German Fleet, expansion of, 228. 
German propaganda in the U.S., 216, 217, 

224, 405, 406, 409, 411, 414, 415- 
Germany, phantasm of poUtical liberty in, 
165, 166; and the Panama Canal, 189; 
relations of U.S. with, 216/.; influence 
of, in inducing Colombia to reject Hay- 
Herran treaty, 225; vetoes limitation 
of armaments at Hague Conference 
of 1907, 287; menace of, 291; and the 
Great War, 402 f.; her conspirators in 
the U.S., 405, 406; attitude of Wilson 
administration toward, criticised, 410 f. 
And see Hay, John, HoUeben, Panama 
Canal, Wilham II, and Wilson, Wood- 
row. 
Gilbert, J. T., 46 n. 
Gladstone, William E., s, 205. 
Glasscock, William E., 351. 
Godkin, Edwin L., and R.'s resignation 
as Police Commissioner, 105, xo6; a 
great power for good, despite his critical 
habit, 106, 107; and C. A. Dana, 108. 
Gorman, Arthur P., agent of the Interests 
in the Senate, 93; attacks Civil Service 
Commission, 93-95; 194- 
Goudy, Henry, 329. 
Gould, Jay, 34, 41. 
Grandfathers' Law, the, 282. 
Grant, Robert, 351, 352, 354. 
Grant, Ulysses S., attempt to nominate 
for a third term in 1880, 47; 12, 207, 321. 
Great Britain. See Alaska, England, and 

Panama Canal. 
Great Fleet, the, voyage (rf, round the 

world, 286/. 
Great Northern R.R., 197. 
Great War, the, 402 f. 
Griggs, John W., 169 n. 
Grosvenor, Charles H., the "Gentle Shep- 
herd of Ohio," and the Civil Service 
Commission, 91, 92. 
Guild, Curtis, 97, 151, 152. 



Hadley, Herbert S., 351, 365, 366, 372, 373. 

Hagedom, Hermann, The Boys' Life 0} 
Theodore Roosevelt, 9. 

Hague Conference (1907) fails to agree 
on limitation of armaments, 297. 

Hale, Edward Everett, 19. 

Hamilton, Alexander, 291, 293. 

Hanks, Charles S., 22, 23. 

Hanks, John, 386. 

Hanna, Marcus A., R. and, 305; candi- 
date for Republican nomination in 1904, 
306; death, 307; 148. 

Harriman, Edward H., the railroad czar 
of the U.S., 234; 251, 308. 

Harrison, Benjamin, elected President in 
1888, 84; appoints R. Civil Service 
Commissioner, 84, 89; his other ap- 
pointees, 89, 90; 97, 256, 300. 

Harvard Advocate, R. editor of, 19. 

Harvard College, in R.'s time, 14/-; stand- 
ard of scholarship, 16. 

Harvard Crimson, annual dinner of, 19, 20. 

Harvard Gymnasium, R.'s boxing match 
in, 22, 23. 

Hasty Pudding Club, 19. 

Havana, treatment of Americans at, io 
1897, 117; U.S. battleship sent to, 117; 
destruction of U.S.S. Maine in harbor 
of, and its effect, 117, n8. 

Hawaiian Islands, 172. 

Hay, John, as Secretary of State, 173. 174; 
Henry Adams quoted on, 173; and the 
Senate, 174, 180; relations of, with diplo- 
matic corps, 174; and the Hay-Paimce- 
fote treaties, 179/.; wishes to resign, 180; 
letter of R. to, 180, i8i; negotiates sec- 
ond Panama treaty, 182; negotiates 
Hay-Herran treaty, 182/. ; not consulted 
as to Panama revolution, 187; his death 
not caused by remorse, 188; and the 
Open Door in China, 229; 113, 142, 210, 
220, 307, 314. Letters of, to Henry WTiite, 
148, 149; R., 150; Henry Adams, 156, 
229; Lady Jeune, 156. 
Hay-Herran treaty, 182 /.; German in- 
fluence in inducing Colombia to reject, 
225. 
Hay-Pauncefote treaty, first, amended by 

Senate, fails, 180; second, 182. 
Hajrwood, William D., accused of murder 
of Gov. Steunenberg of Idaho, 250, 251; 
acquitted, 251; leader of I.W.W., 251. 
Hearst, William R., 441. , 



INDEX 



463 



Henry, Prince, of Prussia, his visit to the 

U.S., and its failure, 223, 224. 
Hepbiu-n Act (Interstate Commerce 

Amendment), 231. 
Herran, Tomas, and the Hay-Herran 

treaty, 182, 183; 186, 187, 189. 
Hess, Jacob, Republican "boss" of the 

2ist New York District, 28, 29, 30, 32, 

33- 

Hewitt, Abram S., dected Mayor of New 
York, 69, 70, 71. 

Hill, David B., Democratic "boss" of 
New York State, 102, 131. 

Hill, James J., 234. 

Hillquit, Morris, 441. 

Hinman, Harvey D., 399. 

Hobart, Garrett, Vice-President, 144. 

Holleben, Dr. von, and the Kaiser 's Vene- 
zuela scheme, 221, 222; made a scape- 
goat, 222-224; 210. 

Holmes, Oliver Wendell, Jr., letter of R. 
to, on Alaskan bouadary, 176, 177. 

Hughes, Charles E., his fight for primary 
elections, 336; nominated for President 
by RepubUcans in 1916, 423; supported 
by R., 423, 424; defeated, 425. 

I.W.W., rise of, 251, 252; denounced by 
R., 441- 

Immigration into U.S., effect of, on wages, 
161, 162; antagonism between Labor 
and Capital largely due to, 163, 164; 
growth of Anarchism and Nihilism due 
to, 164. 

Immigration, Bureau of, 231. 

Imperialism in the Republican platform 
of 1900, 150; meaning of, 170; opposing 
views concerning, 170, 171; R. among 
those who accepted it, 171; his theory 
set forth, 171, 172. 

Ingersoll, Robert G., 48. 

Initiative, the, 34S, 352, 376, 387. 

Insurgent RepubUcans, first appearance 
of, 312; increasingly important part 
played by, 342; rebel against Cannon's 
dictatorship, and defeat him, 343 ; novel 
poUtical instriunents proposed by, 345; 
La Follette leader of, 348; majority of, 
desire R.'s nomination in 1912, 349, 
350, 351. And see Progressive Party. 

"Interests, the," growth of, 105/.; R.'s 
attitude toward, 199; stories about R. 
circulated by, 203, 204; necessity of 



controlling, 232, 233; and the financial 
upheaval of 1907, 239; 383, 386, 399. 

Internationalism, rise of, 161. 

Interstate Commerce Act, 197, 231. 

Ireland, John, Archbishop, and the Car- 
dinalate, 298 ff. 

Irish, in U.S., German attempts to se- 
duce, 224. 

Iron Ore, libel on R. published in, 397. 

Italy, and the Kaiser's Venezuela scheme, 
219, 220. 

Ivins, William M., 400, 401. 

Jackson, Andrew, 86, 207. 

Japan, German attempts to cause trouble 
between U.S. and, 224, 225; war with 
Russia, 225-227; R.'s attitude toward, 
226; 202, 288. 

Jefferson, Thomas, 334. 

Jeffries, James, 271. 

Jesup, Morris K., 30. 

Jett6, Sir A. L., I7S- 

Jeune, Lady Francis, letter of Hay to, 156. 

Jew-baiting, attempted in New York, 104, 
105. 

Jews, massacre of, in Kishineff, 229, 230; 
protests of, in U.S., 229, 230. 

Jiu-jitsu, 270, 271. 

Joffre, Joseph, Marshal, 442. 

Johnson, Hiram W., nominated for Vice- 
President with R. in 1912, 375; 369, 371. 

Johnson, Samuel, 89. 

Jordan, David S., 419. 

Judicial Recall, misnamed "Recall of 
Judges," 345; prevents R.'s nomination 
in 1912, 376; attitude of public toward, 

376, 377; 387- 
Jusserand, Jules, dispatch of, quoted, on 

R.'s personality, 262, 263. 
Justice, R.'s love of, 242, 243, 253, 345, 

346. 

Kansas City Star, 440. 

Kearsarge, the, 4. 

Kipling, Rudyard, Jungle Books, 7; 375. 

Kishineff, massacre of Jews at, 229, 230. 

Klondike, discovery of gold in, 174. 

Knox, Philander C, 169 ». 

Ku-Klux Klan, 281. 

Labor, American, largely composed of 
foreigners 163; and Capital, antagonism 
between, 163, 164, 166/., 233; R.'s atti- 



464 



INDEX 



tude toward, 212, 242 f. And see Coal 
strike of 1902. 

La Follette, Robert M., leader of Pro- 
gressives, 348; candidate for nomina- 
tion for President in 1912, 349; 350, 
441. 

Lambert, Alexander, 398. 

Las Guasimas, skirmish at, 125. 

Lee, Alice Hathaway, engaged to R., 
24; marries R., 31. See Roosevelt, Mrs. 
Alice H. 

Lee, George C, 24. 

Lesseps, Count Ferdinand de, 179. 

Leupp, Francis E., Indian Commissioner, 
The Man Roosevelt quoted, 188, 189, 284. 

Lewis, Edwin H., 315, 370. 

Liability of government to employees, act 
establishing, 231. 

Lincoln, Abraham, i, 2, 38, 68, 80, 110, 142, 
151, 192, 194, 206, 207, 213, 231, 273, 
284,329.346,386,451- 

Liquor, illegal sales of, in New York. See 
Minors, and New York City Police Dept. 

Livingstone, David, Travels, 6. 

Lodge, Henry Cabot, supposed influence 
of, in determining R.'s course in 1884, 
54, SS; 49, 143, 180, 354, 406. 

Loeb, William, 155, 276. 

London, City of, freedom of, bestowed on 

R-, 327- 
Long, John D., Secretary of the Navy, his 

character, 113; contrast between R. and, 

113, 114; 116, 121. 
Lusitania, sinking of, 405, 407 f., 428. 
Lyman, Charles, 89, 90. 
Lynch, John R., 49. 

McAllister, Ward, 327. 

McGovem, Francis E., 365. 

McKee, Baby, 300. 

McKinley, William, appoints R. Assistant 
Secretary of Navy, 105; and Cuba, 116; 
renominated and reelected, 150, 152; 
shot by Czolgosz, 154; death, 155; R. 
promises to continue his policies, 155, 
169; his Cabinet retained by R., 169 
and n.; his character, 169, 170; his atti- 
tude toward free silver, 170; 119, 128, 
148, 149, 175, 180, 210, 211, 216, 254, 
268, 304, 305, 306. And see Hay, John, 
and Spanish War. 

MacMulIen, Professor, 7. 

MacVeagh, Wayne, i86, 187. 



Madison, James, 334. 

Maine, U.S. battleship, blown up in Ha- 
vana Harbor, 117, 118. 

Manila, German ships at, 218. 

Manila Bay, battle of, 121. 

Marroquin, President of Colombia, 187. 

Marshall, Thomas R., 450. 

Meadowbrook Hunt, 57. 

Meat Inspection Act, 231, 238, 311. 

Medora. See Elkhorn Ranch. 

Merit System in the Civil Service, 88, 89. 

Merry del Val, Cardinal, and R.'s visit 
to Rome, 322, 323. 

Metropolilan Magazine, R.'s articles in, 
418 J"., 440. 

Mexico, German propaganda in, 224; 397. 

Meyer, George von L., 226. 

Mill, John Stuart, 293, 295. 

Minckwitz, Herr, 13. 

Minors, unlawful sale of liquors to, in New 
York, how dealt with by R., 111-113. 

Mitchell, Edward, 30. 

Mitchell, John, 243. 

Monetary Commission, 232. 

Monroe Doctrine, and Cleveland's Vene- 
zuela Message, 172; R.'s view of, 172; 
and the Panama Canal, 181; 217, 224, 
227. 

Montauk Point, 129. 

Mores, Marquis de, 61, 62. 

Morgan, J. Pierpont, 197, 234, 235. 

Morgan, William F., 30. 

Morley, John [Viscount], 266. 

Morocco, trouble between France and Ger- 
many over, 202, 227, 228. 

Morris, Gouverneur, 76. 

Morton, Levi P., Vice-President, 144. 

Moyer, , accused of murder of 

Governor Steunenberg, 250, 251; ac- 
quitted, 251. 

"Mugwumps," name given by C. A. Dana 
to anti-Blaine Republicans, 51; their in- 
fluence in the election of 1884, 54. 

Mimitions of war, sale of, to Allies, 415. 

Murray, Joseph, ex-Tammanyite, and R , 
29, 32, 33- 

Napoleon 1, 38, 160. 
Nation, The, 105. 
Nationality, Spirit of, 161. 
Natural History Society at Harvard, 19 
Naturalization of aliens, undiscriminating 
163. 



INDEX 



465 



Navy of the United States, in the War of 
1812, 74; after the Civil War, 114; re- 
construction of, pushed by R., 1 14, im- 
portance of, in view of Cuban affairs, 
in 1897, IIS, "6; functions of, in 
Spanish War, 120, 121; its prestige frit- 
tered away after R.'s term ended. 290. 
And see Great Fleet, the. 

Navy Department, activity in, after de- 
struction of the Maine, 118. 

Negro question, the, 281 /. 

Negro suffrage, 281, 285. 

Negroes, R.'s attitude toward, 282. And 
see Washington, Booker T. 

Newell, F. H., and R.'s. conservation 
policy, 236, 238. 

Newett, George A., sued by R. for libel, 
397-399; withdraws charges of drunken- 1 
ness, etc., 398. 

Newspaper men, R.'s relations with, 272, 

300- , J.J c 

New York Assembly, R. s candidacy tor, 
26/.; his sponsors, 30; R.'s service in, 
34/.; R.'s second term in, 39 /•; his 
third term, 41 /.; and the Franchise 
Tax bill, 138, 139- 
New York City, R. on political conditions 
in, 33; Sunday sales of Uquor in, stopped 
by R., 102, 103; welcomes R. on his 
return from his African Expedition, 

300. ^ . 

New York City Police Department, in- 
vestigation of, 40, 41; workings of, de- 
scribed, 98, 99; under R., 100/. 

New York Elevated Railway, 40. 

New York Evening Post, 105, 107. I43- 

New York State, dominated by bosses, 
131; R.'s campaign and election as 
governor, 135; his administration, 137/-. 
146, 147. And see Piatt, Thomas C. 

New York Sun, 50, 107, I44- 

New York Times, 411- 

New York Tribune, 51, 52, I33- 

Nicholas H, Czar, urged by R. to make 
peace with Japan, 226, 227; and the mas- 
sacre of Jews in Kishineff, 229, 230; 
letter of R. to, 230:202. 

Nile, the, ornithology of, 13. 

Nobel Peace Prize, given to R., 227; 203, 

324- 
North, S. N. D., letter of R. to, 44- 
North Dakota, R. buys ranches in, 58. 
Northern Pacific R.R., I97- 



Northern Securities Case, dedsion of U.S. 

Supreme Court in, 197. 
Northern Securities Co., I97- 



O. K. Society, 19. 

Odell, Benjamin B., 277. 

Ogg, Frederic A., National Progress, 1907- 

i9i7,^quoted, 235. 
O'Leary, Jeremiah, 425. 
Olney, Richard, 180, 191. 
O'Neil, William, 37, 40. 
Open Door, the, 229. 
Oregon, U.S. battleship, 178. 
Osborn, Chase S., 35i' 
Osborn, Henry Fairfield, 329, 391. 
Our Young Folks, 8. 

I OuUook, The, R.'s articles in, 404. 418 #. 
Oxford, gives R. honorary degree, 327; K- 

delivers Romanes Lecture at, 328, 329- 
I Oyster Bay, 72, 255- And see Sagamore 

HiU. 



Packard, Edwin, 46 w. 
Panama, revolution in, 185. 
Panama Republic proclaimed and recog- 
nized by U.S., 185, 186; grants U.S. 
right to construct a canal, etc., 186. 
Panama Canal, and the Clayton-Bulwer 
treaty, 178; necessity of, 178, I79; 
French attempt to construct, 179; R* 
on, 181; strip of territory for construc- 
tion of, leased to U.S., 186; probable 
result of completion of, 291; 288. 
Pan-Germanism, 228. 
Parker, Alton B., Democratic candidate 
for President in 1904, attacks R., 307. 
308. 
Partridge, Colonel, 136. 
Party, R.'s belief in fealty to, S3, 387: 

R.'s view of party organization, 304. 
Pauncefote, Sir Julian [Baron], and the 

Hay-Pauncefote treaty, I79 f- 
Payne, Henry W., appointed Postmaster- 
General by R., 169 n- 
Payne, Sereno E., 339, 340. 
Payne-Aldrich Tariff Act, character of, 
339. 340, 341; extolled by Taft in Win- 
ona speech, 340, 34i; Public dissatis- 
faction with, 344; 295. 376- 
Pearson, Mr., Postmaster of New York, 97. 
Phi Beta Kappa, R. a member of, 23. 
Philippines, Spanish fleet at, in 1898, 120, 
121; status of, 170; R.'s views as to our 



466 



INDEX 



duty concerning, 171, 172; Forbes, Gov- 
ernor-General of, 173; 189, 274. And see 
Manila Bay. 

Pinchot, Gifford, and R.'s conservation 
policy, 235, 236; and Ballinger, 335, 336. 

Pius X, Pope, 322, 323. 

Piatt, Thomas C., Republican boss of 
New York, 131, 132, 133 and «.; opposed 
to R.'s candidacy for governor, 133, 134; 
R.'s attitude toward, 134; consents to 
R.'s nomination, 135; difference with R. 
over State offices, 135, 136; and R.'s 
attitude toward corporations, 138, 139; 
R. never his "man," 139, 140, 142; R.'s 
"breakfasts" with him discussed, 139, 
140; and R.'s appointee as Superin- 
tendent of Insurance, 140-142; letters 
of R. to, 143-146; wishes to be rid of 
R. as governor, 147; decides to shelve 
him in office of Vice-President, 147, 148, 
and succeeds, 149. 150; 208, 277, 303. 

Piatt, Orville H., 310, 311. 

Plattsburg camps, 407, 436. 

Plutocracy in the U.S., 193. I94. IQS. 30i, 
302. 

Porcellian Qub, 19. 

Porto Rico, status of, 170. 

Pound, James H., 398. 

Presidential campaign, of 1876, 18, 19; of 
1904, 306/.; of 1912, 377-382; of IQI6, 
421 ff. 

Primaries, direct, and the Republican Con- 
vention of 1912, 356, 357. 

Progressive Party (name adopted by In- 
surgent Republicans), La FoUette leader 
of, 348; majority of, desire R.'s nomina- 
tion in 1912, 349. 350, 351; at the Na- 
tional Convention, 359 /•; many dele- 
gates of, refuse to ballot for candidates, 
369; released from party obligation by 
nomination of Taft, 371 ; action of, after 
nominations, 371, 372; holds convention 
in August, 373 Jf.; nominates R., 374; 
the platform, 37s, 376; many of the 
planks since made into law by Demo- 
crats, 375, 376, 396; ceases to be a real 
power in politics, 396; R. nominated by, 
in 1916, but declines, 423. And see In- 
surgent Republicans, Republican Party. 

Protection Tariff, R.'s attitude on, 293 /. 

Public Lands R.'s work in reclaiming and 
conserving, 236-238. 

Pure Food Act, 231. 



Putnam, G. P. 's Sons, 32. 
Putnam, George Haven, 32. 
Putnam, Rufus P., 92. 

Quay, Matthew S., his reputation, 131, 
132, 133 and «.; connives at Piatt's 
scheme to nominate R. for Vice-Presi- 
dent, 149; R. reconciled to, 304, 305. 

Quigg, Lemuel, and R.'s candidacy for 
governor of New York, 133, 134, 135. 

Railroads, reasons for legislative control 
of, 233, 234; war for monopoly of, and 
the near panic of 1901, 234, 235; laws 
regulating rates and rebates, 235. 

Rampolla, Cardinal, 299. 

Recall of Judges. See Judicial Recall. 

Reconstrucrion, 285. 

Referendum, the, 345, 352, 376, 387. 

Reid, Whitelaw, 325. 

Republican Machine, R.'s relations with, 
after he became president "in his own 
right," 309 jff.; accepts R.'s choice of 
Taft as his successor, 314, 315; Taft's 
standing with, 341, 342. And see Piatt, 
Thomas C. 

RepubUcan National Committee, R. a 
member of, in 1884, 43; and the Conven- 
tion of 1912, 358; controlled by Regu- 
lars, 366. 

RepubUcan National Convention {1900), 
nominates R. for Vice-President, 149; 
{1904) nominates R. for President, 
307; {1912), 356^.; Southern delegates 
largely pledged to Taft, 356; delegates 
from Northern, Western, and Pacific 
States, largely for R., 356; great number 
of contesting delegates, 357; sessions of, 
357-371; R- on the outskirts of, 359/.; 
action of Credentials Committee a 
shameless theft, 367; nominates Taft, 
367; R.'s message to, 368. 

Republican Party, history of, since the 
Civil War, 46, 47; in the presidential 
election of 1876, 47; nominates Garfield 
in 1880, 47, and Blaine in 1884, 47-50; 
split by nomination of Blaine, 49, 50; R. 
adheres to, 52 jff.; character of, in R.'s 
day, 193, 194; upholder of privilege. 
193; the story of R.'s conflict with, 331 
£.; split between Regulars and Insur- 
gents, 335 /.; difficulties of, in 1912, 
349/.; in the South, 356; Insurgents re- 



INDEX 



467 



leased from obligation to, by renomina- 
tion of Taft, 371; split by Taft faction, 
not by R., 382, 383, 422; Regulars abuse 
R-> 384, 385; R- used it as long as he 
could, 386; the party of the plutocrats 
who controlled the Interests, 386; seeks 
to destroy R. as a political factor, 399; 
declines him as a candidate in 1916, 421, 
422; nominates Hughes, 422, 423. 

Restoration of the Bourbons, 161. 

Reyes, Rafael, 186, 187, 188. 

Rhodes, James Ford, quoted, on R., 273, 
274; 285, 286, 301, 302. 

Riis, Jacob, R.'s companion on his tours of 
inspection as Police Commissioner, 103, 
104; How the Other Half Lives, 104; on 
R.'s administration as governor, 137; 
Theodore Roosevelt: the Citizen, quoted, 
35.70,138,139.266. 

River of Doubt, 81, 82, 391/. 

Rixey, Surgeon-General of U.S., 265. 

Robinson, Mrs. Corinne (Roosevelt), 7, 
277. 278, 331. 389- 

Robinson, Doxiglas, 10 n. 

Rock Creek, 261. 

Romanes Lecture at Oxford, delivered by 
R.,328. 

Rome, R.'s visit to, 322-324. 

Roosevelt, Mrs. Alice (Lee), death, 44, 
58. 

Roosevelt, Archibald, 441, 442. 

Roosevelt, Corinne, 9, 10 and n., And see 
Robinson, Mrs. Corinne (Roosevelt). 

Roosevelt, Cornelius Van Schaack, R.'s 
grandfather, 3. 

Roosevelt, Mrs. Edith Carow, ancestry, 
71, 72; 256, 257, 258, 259, 260, 270, 283, 
288, 300, 320, 330, 359, 361, 379, 449. 

Roosevelt, EUiott, 5. 

Roosevelt, Ethel, R.'s daughter, 320. And 
see Derby, Mrs. Ethel. 

Roosevelt, Kermit, R.'s son, accompanies 
R. on his African journey, 319 ff., and 
on his Brazilian trip, 391, 394; marries 
Miss Willard, 395; 258, 441, 442. 

Roosevelt, Klaes Martensen van, 2. 

Roosevelt, Mrs. Martha (Bulloch). R.'s 
mother, an unreconstructed Southerner, 
4; death 43, 58 ; 5. 6, 7, 8, 9. 10. 

Roosevelt, Quentin, R.'s son, killed in air- 
battle, 442; 441, 447. 

Roosevelt, Robert, 5, 31. 

Roosevelt, Mrs. Robot, 6. 



Roosevelt, Theodore, R.'s father, his char- 
acter, 3; R.'s tribute to, 3, 4; appointed 
Commissioner to Vienna Exposition, 
12; death, 24,25; 5, 7, 9, ii. 

Roosevelt, Theodore. — 

I. Early Years. — Contrast between 
his origin, training, etc., and Lincoln's, 
1,2; his paternal ancestry, 2, 3; his trib- 
ute to his father, 3, 4; his mother an un- 
reconstructed Southerner, 4; her broth- 
ers, 4, 5; effect of his joint Northern 
and Southern ancestry on his non-sec- 
tional Americanism, 5; birth and boy- 
hood, sf-'> learns early to read, 6; sense 
of humor, 6; fondness for pets, 6, 7; a 
sickly child, 7; an omnivorous reader, 8; 
early taste for natural history, 8, 9, 12; 
visit to Europe, 9, 10; extracts from his 
diary, 9, 10; takes up gymnastics to 
counteract his asthmatic habit, n, 12; 
"Roosevelt Museum of Natural' His- 
tory," 12; again abroad: Algiers and the 
Nile, 12, 13; in Vienna and Dresden, 13; 
prepares for Harvard under A. H. Cut- 
ler, 13; steadily improving health, 13, 14; 
devoted to athletics, 14; enters Harvard 
in 1876, 14; the College in his day, 14-16; 
his college course, 16 f.; in the Maine 
Woods, 17; his devotion to Harvard, 17; 
athletic and social life, 18, 19; editor of 
the Advocate, 19; his maiden speech, 20; 
his ambition to help the cause of good 
government, 21; teaches in Sunday 
School, 22 ; his boxing-match with Hanks, 
22, 23; his rank at graduation, 23; mem- 
ber of Phi Beta Kappa, 23; a happy 
combination of the amateurish and the 
intense, 24; his father's death, 24, 25; 
engaged to Miss Lee, 24; married to 
her, 32. 

II. From Assemblyman to Police Com- 
missioner. — Possessed of a competence, 
25, 26; decides to enter politics, 26; his 
candidacy for the New York Assembly, 
26 f.; elected to 21st District Repub- 
lican Club, 27, 28; a "good mixer," 28; 
and "Boss" Hess, 28; relations with 
Murray, ex-Tammanyite, 29; his ap- 
peals to the voters, 29, 30; his sponsors, 
30, 31; his law-studies, 31, 32; nms the 
gauntlet of the saloon-keepers, 32, 33; 
his purpose in going into politics, 33, 34; 
the greatest idealist in American public 



468 



INDEX 



life since Lincoln, 34; attacks corruption 
in New York 34; demands impeachment 
of Judge Westbrook, 35, 36; his business, 
to uphold Right, 36; his name becomes 
known, 37; works with Billy O'Neil, 37, 
38; renominated for Assembly, 38; his 
justifiable pride in his first year's re- 
cord, 38; reelected, 39; his second ses- 
sion, 39-41; his associates, 40; fights 
Black-Horse Cavalry, 40, 41 ; encounter 
with George Bliss, 41 ; his third term, 41- 
43; bill for relief of cigar-makers, de- 
clared unconstitutional, 42, 43; declines 
a fourth term, 43 ; deaths of mother and 
wife, 44; delegate to National Conven- 
tion of 1884, 46, 50; embodies the glo- 
rious promise of the new generation, 47; 
opposed to nomination of Blaine, 49; 
favors Edmunds, 49; supports Blaine, 
52-55; his belief that party transcends 
fjersons, 53, 54, 387; his decision formed 
independently, 54, 55; takes a vigorous 
part in the campaign, 55; a wonderful 
example of the partnership of mind and 
body, 56, 57; great physical strength, 57; 
fishing and hunting, 58; decides to go 
West, 58; buys ranches in the Bad Lands 
in No. Dakota, 58; his life at Elkhorn 
Ranch, 59^., 256; intercourse with law- 
less nomads, 60, 61 ; and the Marquis de 
Mores, 61, 62; experiences with "bad 
men," 62-64, and with cattle-thieves, 64; 
acting deputy sheriff, 65, 66; his bodily 
frame equal to the demands of his physical 
courage, 66; not pugnacious, 67; results 
of his ranch-life, 68; acquires a national 
point of view, 68; nominated by Inde- 
pendents for Mayor of New York, 69, 70 ; 
his letter of acceptance, 70; defeated, 
71 ; marries Miss Carow in London, 72, 
256; settles on Sagamore Hill estate, at 
Oyster Bay, 72, 256; devotes himself to 
literature, 73 _ff.; could do nothing com- 
monplace, 73; as a historian, 74, 75; his 
portrait of Daniel Boon, 75; his many 
books on ranch-life and hunting, 77; his 
collected essays and addresses, 77; ig- 
nored by professional critics, 77, 78; 
quality of his writings, "jSj.; his "catch- 
ing" phrases and similes, 79; the purist 
may criticise, 79; characteristics of his 
political essays, 80, 81 ; feels the charm 
of beauty, 81; his holidays, 83, 84; sup- 



ports Harrison in 1888, 84; appointed 
Civil Service Commissioner by him, 84, 
89; the Republican Machine glad to 
have him shelved, 84, 85; his colleagues, 
89, 90; shapes the policy of the Com- 
mission, 90; enforces Civil Service Law 
rigorously, 91; encounters with Gros- 
venor and Gorman, 90-95 ; urges exten- 
sion of classified service, 96; reappointed 
by Cleveland, 96, 97; appointed Presi- 
dent of Board of Police Commissioners 
of New York City, 98; sets out to reform 
the prevailing system of corruption and 
blackmail, 100, loi; enforces the laws, 
loi ; closes saloons on Sundays, 102, 103; 
his visits of inspection, 103, 104; and 
Ahlwardt, the Jew-baiter, 104, 105; re- 
signs to become Assistant Secretary of 
the Navy, imder John D. Long, 105; 
feeling in New York concerning his resig- 
nation, 105, 106; physical and mental 
condition in 1897, 109, no; effect of his 
training as Civil Service Commissioner, 
no, and as PoUce Commissioner, in; 
takes the law into his own hands to 
check sale of hquor to minors, in, 112; 
his tendency to follow short cuts to 
justice, 113. 

HL Assistant Secretary of the Navy and 
Rough Rider. — Contrast between Sec- 
retary Long and, 113, 114; his knowledge 
of the Navy and interest in its problems, 
1 14; pushes construction of the new navy, 
114, 116; his premonition of a crisis, 
115; Cleveland's Venezuela message, 
115; the insurrection in Cuba, 115, 116; 
seciires appropriation for target practice, 
116; welcomes approach of war, and 
why, 118, 119; his opinion of Boston, 
119; his gospel of military and naval 
preparedness, 120; his dispatch to 
Dewey at Hong Kong, 121 ; his status in 
the Navy Department, 121; decides to 
take part in the war, 122; declines offer 
of a commission in the army, 122; with 
Leonard Wood raises First Regiment of 
Volunteer Cavalry (Rough Riders), and 
becomes lieutenant-colonel, 122^.; the 
volunteers bound together by devotion 
to him, 123; becomes colonel, 126; at 
San Juan Hill, 126; life in the trenches, 
126; his letter to Gen. Shatter, 127, 128; 
the "Round Robin," and its effect at 



INDEX 



469 



home, 128, V29; at Montauk Pomt, 129; 
lessons of the war as seen by, 130. 

IV Governor arid Vice-President.— 
His great popularity, 131; his candidacy 
for governor, hrst opposed then ac- 
cepted by Piatt, 133-135; bis y^so™^^ 
campaign, 135; elected, 135; his first 
encounter with Piatt, 13S. 136; his 
administration described by Riis, 
137- Factory law and law regulatmg 
sweat-shops, enforced, i37; struggle 
over law to tex public-franchise cor- 
porations, 137/-; and the profes- 
sional critics, 139; not Piatt's man, 
139, 140; his breakfasts with Piatt, 139. 
140; and the office of Superintendent 
of Insurance, 140-142; how far he co- 
operated with the Machine, 142; on the 
proposal to nominate him for Vice- 
presidency, 143, 144; desires Judge 
Andrews to succeed him as governor, 
144-146; "I am an organization Repub- 
lican of a very strong type," 144; views 
of, as to the attitude of officials toward 
the "organization," i45. 146; his inde- 
pendence and achievement of reforms 
increase his popularity, 146, I47; Piatt 
and the Machine decide to shelve him m 
the office of Vice-President, 147, I49; 
is averse to the plan, 147, 148; states 
pubhcly that he is not a candidate, 149; 
but is nominated, 149; in the campaign, 
151; presides over the Senate, 152; 
thinks of pursuing his law studies, 153; 
succeeds to the Presidency on the death 
of McKinley, IS5- , , 

V. President. — Takes the oath of 
office at Buffalo, i55; promises to con- 
tinue McKinley's policies, 155. 169- 
retains McKinley's Cabinet, 156, 169; 
the hope of American politics, IS7; 
what sort of a worid he confronted, 158- 
168; the doctrine of Imperialism, ac- 
cepted by, 170, 171 ; iiis view of our duty 
to the Filipinos, 171, 172; his view of 
the Monroe Doctrine in various aspects, 
172, 181; what IraperiaUsm meant to 
him', 172; convinced that the U.S. must 
abandon policy of isolation, 172; ap- 
points W. C. Forbes Governor-General 
of Philippines, 173; and the Alaskan 
Boundary dispute, 175/-; appoints new 
High Commssion, 175; bis views on the 



subject, 176, 177; gains a favorable de- 
cision by a "short cut," 177. 178; the 
Panama Canal question, 178 /■; ob- 
jects to first Hay-Pauncefote treaty, 
180, 181; and the revolution in 
Panama, 185; recognizes Panama Re- 
public, 185 /.; varying views of the 
Panama episode, 188-190; a champion of 
liberty, 192; his Republicanism, 193; 
his attitude toward plutocracy and privi- 
lege, 193, 194; reMes on justice and com- 
mon sense, 194; suggests need of legis- 
lation to resist encroachments by cap- 
italists, 198; urges conservation of na- 
tional resources, 198; general nature 
of his reforms, 198; warfare with the 
Interests, 199, 200; combativeness his 
dominant trait, 201; not truculent or 
pugnacious, 201; repels attempts of 
William II. to gain a foothold on this 
continent, 202; shines as a peacemaker, 
202, 203; persuades Russian Czar to 
make peace with Japan, 202, 226; sug- 
gests Conference of Algedras to settle 
Moroccan dispute, 202, 228; the "Big 
Stick," 202, 288; stories about him cir- 
culated by the Interests, 203, 204; the 
Ananias Club, 204, 209; how far the 
charge of being'ambitious is true, 206/.; 
his habit of speaking and writing can- 
didly, 209, 210, 211 ; not Uable to accusa- 
tion of mendacity, 210, 211 ; and the con- 
flict, between Labor and Capital, 212, 
213; the "square deal," 213, 215; two 
contrasted views of, 213; remodels the 
White House, 215, 275; blocks the 
Kaiser's Venezuelan scheme, 219-224; 
threatens war, if Kaiser will not arbi- 
trate his claims, against Venezuela, 
221 , 222 ; his share in bringing about peace 
between Russia and Japan, 226, 227; 
Nobel Peace Prize awarded to, 227; 
watches conditions in Germany, 228; 
and the massacre of Jews at Kishineff, 
229, 230; important laws passed by Con- 
gress during his administration, 231, 
232; and the railroads, 233-235; orders 
suit against Standard Oil Co. for re- 
ceiving rebates, 235; his greatest work in 
the fields of reclamation and conserva- 
tion, 236/.; advised by Pinchot, Newell. 
Beveridge, and others, 238; and the Ten- 
nessee Coal and Iron Co. episode, 239. 



470 



INDEX 



240; result of his battle for conservation, 
240, 241 ; his dealings with Labor, 242^.; 
settles the coal strike of 1902 by extra- 
legal means, 243-247; both sincere and 
wise, 247, 248; moral of his settlement 
of the coal strike, justice for all, 248, 
249; the greatest of modern democrats, 
249; the strike of the Western Federation 
of Miners, and the murder of Governor 
Steunenberg, 250, 251; undesirable citi- 
zens, 251 ; his beUef injustice and Equal- 
ity as realities, 253. 

His various homes between 1884 and 
1889, 256; life in Washington as Civil 
Service Commissioner, 256, 257; re- 
turns to Sagamore Hill, 257; his life 
there, 257-259, 261, 271; relations with 
his children, 258; his life in Washington, 
from 1901, 259 f.; the "Tennis Cabi- 
net," 260, 261; "hiiking," 261, 262; M. 
Jusserand quoted, concerning, 262, 263; 
his order regarding forced marches for 
troops, 264, 265 ; dinners at the White 
House, 265, 266; John Morley on, 266; 
his family relations, 267, 268; the hours 
of toil, 268, 269; his devotion to physi- 
cal exercise, 270, 271; loses sight of one 
eye while boxing, 271; relations with 
newspaper men, 272, 300; the great 
paradox of his character, 272, 273; his 
reverence for the great men of the past, 
273; his method of coping with his work, 
275; reorganizes White House service, 
275, 276; always mindful of the dignity 
o^his office, 277; an upholder of the Fam- 
ily, 280. 

Attitude toward the negro, 282; the 
Booker Washington incident, 282-285; 
harshly criticised in the South, 283; the 
voyage of the Great Fleet, 286-290; his 
efforts to increase the strength of the 
Navy, 287; purpose and result of the 
voyage, 288-290; his attitude toward 
war, discussed, 290 ff.; his views and 
action on the tariflf unsatisfactory, 293- 
295; the tarifif a question of expediency, 
295; colored troops at Brownsville (Tex- 
as), 296, 297; never forgot the Oneness of 
Society, 301 ; in what sense he was a pol- 
itician, 303 ; his belief in the necessity of 
party organization, 304; wins approval 
of Quay, 304, 305; nominated in 1904, 
307; and Judge Parker's attack, 307, 



308; elected by huge majority, 308; his 
declaration as to a third term, and what 
it meant, 308, 309; President "in hisown 
right," 309; first indications of the strug- 
gle to come, 309^.; the Machine and the 
Interests, 310, 311; his followers styled 
"Insurgents," 312; policy of the "Regu- 
', lars" toward, 313; selects Taft as his 
successor, 314; and the Republican 
National Committee, 315; his expecta- 
tions as to Taft's Cabinet disappointed, 
316; leaves Washington, 317. 

VT. Travels. — The Canvass of igi2. — 
His African expedition, 318-320; his ad- 
dress in Cairo, 320; triumphal tour of 
Europe, 320^.; why he did not call on 
the Pope, 322-324; in Vienna and Bu- 
dapest, 324; address at Christiania, on 
universal peace, 324; entertained by the 
Kaiser in Berlin, 324; his impression of 
the Kaiser, 325, 326; in Paris, 325; his 
reception in England, 325 f.; special 
envoy at fimeral of Edward VII, 325; 
honors bestowed on him by the City and 
the universities, 327; his address on 
Egjpt, 327, 328; delivers Romanes Lec- 
ture, at Oxford, 328; his return to New 
York, 330, 331. 

His "policies" abandoned by the Re- 
publicans during his absence, 332, 337 
f., 347; his mistake in attempting to 
establish a presidential dynasty, 333, 
334; urged by his followers to "unfurl 
his flag " against the administration, 
336; is attracted by the principles ac- 
tuating the Progressive Movement, 345; 
his Ossawatomie speech on the "New 
Nationalism" (1910), 346, 347; Lincoln 
would have approved the measures ad- 
vocated in that speech, 346; becomes the 
centre of attention, 347; resents the 
abandonment of his policies, 347, 348; 
relations with Taft, 347; declines to run 
for President, 348 ; his zealous friends 
urge him to reconsider, 349, 350; action 
of the seven governors, 351; conversa- 
tion with Judge Grant and the author, 
351-355; annoimces iiis candidacy, 355; 
the canvass for delegates, 356, 357; the 
Convention of 1912, 357 J".; goes to Chi- 
cago and assumes direction of his forces, 
359^.; his reception, 360; his activities 
during the Convention, 361, 364; his 



INDEX 



471 



message to the Convention, repudiat- 
ing its action, 368; his speech at the 
meeting of his supporters, 371 , 372 ; nom- 
inated by Progressive Convention in 
August, 373-375; effect of the pro- 
posed Judicial Recall on his vote, 376, 
377; his activity in the campaign, 378/.; 
shot by Schranck, 378, 379; defeated. 
381, 382; who spHt the Republican 
Party? 382, 383, 422; personal attacks 
on, 384; his action in entering the field 
justified, 38s ff.; his acceptance of de- 
feat, 389; the South American journey 
and the River of Doubt, 390/.; effect of 
the hardships of the journey on his 
physique, 394; visits Madrid for his 
son's marriage, 395 ; disappointed by the 
waning of the Progressive Party, 396; his 
libel suit against Newett, 397-399; sued 
by Barnes for libel, 399-401 . 

Vn. The Great War. — Last years. At 
first approves neutrality of U.S., 404; 
his change of view, 406; the three tasks 
that he set himself, 407; what he would 
have done, had he been President in 
May, 191S, 410, 411; charges President 
Wilson with ultimate responsibility for 
many things, 416; angered by Wilson's 
contradictory utterances, 417; his arti- 
cles in the Outlook and Metropolitan 
Magazine, quoted, 418-420; nominated 
by Progressives in 1916, but finally de- 
clines to run, and supports Hughes, 421- 
423, 424; his continued criticism of Wil- 
son, 426, 428, 441 ; his speech at Platts- 
burg causes Wood to be reprimanded, 
431, 437; his sentiments as to our enter- 
ing the war, 432 ; offers to raise a divi- 
sion of volunteers, 432; his offer declined, 
433 and ».; after passage of draft law, 
renews his offer, which is again declined, 
433; charged with self-seeking, 434; 
what the effect would have been of send- 
ing him to France, 435; the President's 
reason for refusing to employ him, 43s, 
436; resents treatment of Wood, 435, 
437. 438; criticises Secretary Baker, 
439; his articles in the Metropolitan and 
Kansas City Star, 440; his efforts to se- 
cure a commission, etc., the immediate 
cause of sending any troops to France, 
442; his last years not an anticUmax, 
443; his whole career considered, 444.#-: 



his the one voice in the U.S. that could 
not be silenced, 445; his demands, one 
by one, reluctantly adopted by Wilson, 
445, 446; his later relations with Repub- 
lican regulars, 446, 447; he never re- 
covered from the malarial fever with 
which he became infected in Brazil, 
447; death of Quentin, 447, 448; his last 
public speech, 448; death and funeral, 
at Sagamore Hill, 449. 45°; concluding 
reflections, 451-454. 

Will. Writings. — Letters. His AutO' 
biography quoted, 5, 17, 33. 34, 134. 
236, 252; History of the War of 1812, 
32, 74, 114; Winning of the West, 74; 
Thomas H. Benton, 76, 294; Gouverneur 
Morris, 76; Ohver Cromwell, 76; Through 
the Brazilian Wilderness, 82; The 
Rough Riders, 125. Letters to FeUx 
Frankfurter, 440, 441; John Hay, 180; 
Oliver W. Holmes, 175; S. N. D. North, 
44; Thomas C. Piatt, 143-146; General 
Shafter, 127; William R. Thayer, 424; 
Charles G. Washburn, 31. 

Roosevelt, Theodore, Jr., R.'s son, 441. 
442. 

Roosevelt family, in the U.S., 2. 

Roosevelt Museum of Natural History, 12. 

Root, Elihu, Secretary of State, R.'s high 
opinion of, 314; why less eUgible than 
Taft as R.'s successor, 314; Chairman of 
Republican Conventionof 1912,365,366, 
369. 370; 30, 31, 145. 149. 155. 175. 176, 
367,401,446,447- 

Rosewater, Victor, 365. 

Rough Riders, at Chicago, in 1912, 360; 
at R.'s funeral, 449, 450. And see Volun- 
teer Cavalry, First Regiment of. 

"Round Robin," the, 128. 

Rousseau, Jean-Jacques, 159, 160. 

Russia, Kaiser's attitude toward, in Russo- 
Japanese War, 225; collapse of, in 1916, 

427- , ^ 

Russo-Japanese War, 225-227; R. s share 

in peace negotiations, 226, 227. 
Ryan, Dr. 379- 

Safety Appliance Act, 231. 

Sagamore Hill, R.'s estate at Oyster Bay, 

72, 73; life at, 255, 256, 257, 258, 259. 

261, 267, 271 ; R.'s death at, 449. 
Salisbury, Robert Cecil, Marquis of, and 

the Panama Canal, 182. 



472 



INDEX 



Saloon-keepers of 2ist District, R. runs 
the gauntlet of, 32, 33. 

San Juan Hill, battle of, 126. 

Santiago, surrender of, 126. 

Saturday Evening Post, 35. 

Schranck, John, R. shot by, 378. 

Schurz, Carl, 54. 

Selous, Frederick C, 319. 

Serbia, 402. 

Sewall, William, R.'s guide in the Maine 
Woods, 17, 58, 65, 83, 265. 

Shafter, William R., U.S.A., R.'s letter to, 
127, 128; calls council of war, 128; and 
the Round Robin, 129. 

Shakespeare, William, 38. 

Shepard, Elliott F., 30. 

Sherman, James S., 371. 

Shultz, Jackson S., 30. 

Sigsbee, Charies D., U.S.N., I17. 

Single Tax, the, 70. 

Slavery, progress of Democracy not ar- 
rested by, 160; and the preservation of 
the Union, 161, 162. 

Smith, Charles E., 169 n. 

Smithsonian Institution, 319. 

Social Justice, R.'s Hfe-long goal, 345, 346. 

Social Revolution, the, 161 ff. 

Sorbonne, the, 323. 

South, the, stirred by R.'s entertainment of 
Booker Washington, 283, 284; R.'s at- 
titude toward, 284, 2S5, 286. 

South America, R.'s expedition to, 390 #. 

Spaniards, in Cuba, 115, 116; and Ameri- 
can residents at Havana, 117. 

Spanish War of 1898, 121 /., 150, 178, 
217, 286, 287. 

Speaker of New York Assembly, 138, 139. 

Spoils System, the, 86 ff. 

Spring-Rice, Sir Cecil, 71, 228. 

"Square Deal," a, 213, 243/. 

"Stand-Patters," 312, 313. And see Repub- 
lican Party. 

Standard Oil Co., R. orders suit against, 
for accepting rebates, 235, 383. 

Steunenberg, Governor, of Idaho, mur- 
der of, 250. 

Strong, William B., elected Mayor of New 
York, 97; appoints R. President of 
Board of Police Commissioners, 97; 
330. 

Stubbs, Governor, of Kansas, 351. 

Sullivan, John L., R. invited to be a pall- 
bearer at his funeral, 271. 



Taft, William H., Secretary of War, 
chosen by R. as his successor, 314 J^.; 
elected President, 315; the first rift in 
the lute, 316; his Cabinet made up of 
new men, 316, 335; fails to come up to 
R.'s expectations, 333 J".; his desire to be 
independent, 334; the Ballinger-Pin- 
chot controversy, 335, 336; and the 
Trusts, 337, 383; his sincerity in fight- 
ing monopolies suspected, 337, 338; and 
the Republican plank on the tariff, 339, 
340; signs Payne-Aldrich bill, 340; his 
Winona (Minn.) speech, 340, 341; public 
opinion of his action, 340, 341; sup- 
ported by Republican machine, 341, 342; 
attitude of Insurgents toward, 343, 
344; his policies resented by R., 347; 
personal relations with R., 348; the log- 
ical candidate of Conservatives in 191 2, 
349; and the delegates to the Conven- 
tion, 357; renominated, 367, 371; in- 
active in campaign, 380; defeated, 381, 
382; Republican Party split by him, 
not by R., 382, 383, 422; R. charged with 
ingratitude to, 385; 254, 318, 325. And 
see Republican National Convention 
of 1912. 

Tammany Hall, 69, 102. 

Tardieu, Andre, 262. 

Tariff, Republican platform of 1908 on, 
338, 339, supposed to call for revision 
ciownward, 339; Payne-Aldrich bill signed 
by Taft, 339, 340. 

"Teddy's Terrors," 125. 

Tennessee Coal and Iron Co., R. assents 
to proposal of Gary and Frick to pur- 
chase control of, 239, 240. 

Tennis Cabinet, the, 261, 270. 

Tennyson, Alfred, Lord, 78. 

Thayer, William R., personal reminiscences 
of R. at Harvard, 19 JT.; and R. in the 
campaign of 1884, 51 Jf.; conversation 
with R., in February, 1912, 351-353; 
letter of R. to, 424; John Hay, quoted, 
150, 156, 176, 177, 229, 307. 

Third term, R.'s declaration against, and 
its meaning, 308, 309. 

Thompson, Hugh, 90. 

Trusts, the, 197/.; the tariff and, 294; at- 
titude of Taft administration toward, 
337. And see Interests. 

Tuckerman, Gustavus, 30. 

Turner, George, 175, 176. 



INDEX 



473 



Twenty-first District Republican Associa- 
tion of New York City, 27 Jf. 
Twenty-first District Republican Club, 

27 #• 
Tyree, Mr., detective, 361. 

United Labor Party, 69, 70. 

United States, and Cuba, 116 ff.; effect of 
destruction of U.S.S. Maitie in, 117, 
118; effect of "Round Robin" in, 128, 
129; progress of Democracy in, 160, 
161; economic conditions in, after Civil 
War, 162, 163; vast expansion of indus- 
try, 162; unchecked immigration, 162, 
163; ceases to be the "Land of Promise," 
163, 164; antagonism between Labor 
and Capital in, 163, 164, 166^.; seeds of 
Anarchy and Nihilism planted by im- 
migrants, 164; condition of working 
classes in, 167; relations with Canada, 
174 jff.; neutrality of, at outbreak of 
Great War, 402 Jf.; preparations tor war 
in, 430 jf. And see Germany, William 11, 
and Wilson, Woodrow. 

United States Senate, a millionaires' club, 
87; R. presiding ofiBcer of, 152; and Sec- 
retary Hay, 174; Steering Committee 
of, and R., 310/. 

United States Steel Corporation, and the 
Tennessee Coal and Iron Co., 239, 240; 
197. 

Utica Herald, 44. 

Vanderbilt, William H., 196. 

Vatican, the, and Archbishop Ireland, 
298, 299. 

Venezuela, Cleveland's message concern- 
ing, IIS, 172. 

Victor Emmanuel III, 322. 

Viscaya, Spanish battleship, 120. 

Volunteer Cavalry, First Regiment of 
("Rough Riders") raised by Wood and 
R., 123; its personnel, 123; exploits and 
hardships of, in Spanish War, 125 ff., 
130. And see Rough Riders. 

Wales, S. H., 30. 

Walker, Dr. Mary, 276. 

War, advent of, in 1898, welcomed by 
R., 118; R.'s attitude toward, in the ab- 
stract, 290^. 

War Department, after destruction of the 
Maine, 118; blunders and incompetence 



of, in Spanish War, 126, 127, 129; and 
the "Round Robin," 128. 

War of 1812, 74. 

Ward, Mary A. (Mrs. Humphry), 326. 

Waring, George E., 97, 98. 

Washburn, Charles G., quoted, 157, 231, 
232, 278, 279; his Theodore Roosevelt, 
43, 156; letter of R. to, 246; 21, 31. 

Washington, Booker T., spokesman of negro 
race, 282; entertained by R. at White 
House, and the sequel, 282^.; 297. 

Washington, George, 158, 205, 206, 333, 
451. 

Washington, D.C., changes in, during 
R.'s terms, 215, 216; R.'s life in, while 
Civil Service Commissioner, 257. And 
see White House. 

Webb, W. H.. 30. 

Webster, Daniel, his Seventh of March 
speech, 52. 

West, the, R.''s description of life In, 59, 60. 

Westbrook, Judge, R. demands impeach- 
ment of, 34, 35, 36; investigated and 
whitewashed, 37. 

Western Federation of Miners, strike of, 
250, 251; R.'s correspondence with, 251. 

White, Andrew D., 46 n. 

White, Edward D., 153. 

White, Henry, letter of Hay to, 148. 

White House, remodeled by R., 215, 275; 
R.'s life at, 259^.; service in, reorganized 
by R., 275 ; orderliness in, introduced by 
R., 275, 276. 

Whitman, Charles S., 448. 

Whittier, John G., his "Ichabod," 52. 

Wickersham, George W., and the Trusts, 
337, 338, 383- 

Wilcox, Ansley, 155. 

Willard, Joseph E., 395. 

WilHam II, German Emperor, his "mad 
project of universal conquest," 216; 
machinations of, in U.S., 216, 217; and 
the Monroe Doctrine, 217; and the Span- 
ish War, 217, 218; his real sentiment to- 
ward the U.S., 218; and the Panama 
Canal, 219 ff.; the VenezTuelan scheme, 
219-222; backs down and consents to 
arbitrate, 222; makes Holleben a scajje- 
goat, 222-224; his policy of peaceful 
penetration, 224 _ff.; and the Russo- 
Japanese War, 225, 226; invites the U.S. 
to interfere in Morocco, 227, 228; R.'s 
view of his designs, 228, 229; his plan to 



474 



INDEX 



cut up China, 229; entertains R. at Ber- 
lin, 324, 325; R.'s impression of, 325 
326; his submarine policy, 429; 202, 210', 
272,299,319,410,414. 
Wilson, Woodrow, nominated for Presi- 
dent by Democrats in 1912, 380; and 
elected, 381, 382; his message of August 
18, 1914, criticised, 402, 403; his policy 
in the early months of the war charac. 
terized, 404]; 405;' R. exasperated by 
sins of his administration, 406, 407, 417" 
ff.\ his attitude toward the Lusitania 
horror, 408; 409, 410; criticism of his 
conduct in general, 411 #.; renominated 
and reelected in 1916, 424, 425; further 
criticism of, 426, 427, 428, 435; his pa- 
tience at last exhausted, 429; breaks off 
relations with Germany, 430: his i>olicy 
of timidity and evasion, 430, 431; and 
R.'s offer to raise troops, 433 and «., 434, 
435; R. responsible for his decision to 
send troops to France, 442, 443; follows 



public opinion when he can; 446; 205 
206, 385, 396. 

Wine and Spirit Gazette, 102. 

Winona (Minn.), Taft's speech at (1909), 
340, 341. 

Wood, Leonard, U. S. A., his history, 122; 
raises First Regiment of Volunteer Cav- 
alry in Spanish War, 123; R, lieutenant- 
colonel under, 123 ff.; promoted to brig- 
adier-general, 126; reprimanded in con- 
nection with R.'s speech at Plattsburg; 
430, 437; his treatment by the admin- 
istration resented by R., 436, 437, 438, 
439; Colonel Azan on, 438 «.; 263, 264, 
378, 407, 447. 

"Wood's Weary Walkers," 125. 

Woodbury, John, 455. 

Woodruff, Timothy L., 362. 

Wright, Luke E., 390. 

Yellow Peril, the, 226. 
Yucatan, transport,126. 



/ 



